Crypto scams target elderly in Austria and investors in Europe and Brazil as AI phishing spikes

A 77‑year‑old resident of Klagenfurt, Austria, was deceived by phone calls promising payouts in cryptocurrency, leading him to transfer tens of thousands of euros to fraudulent accounts, police said. The scheme resulted in a total loss of several hundred thousand euros for the victim.

Across Europe and South America, AI‑assisted phishing attacks have surged by more than 1,200 %. Fraudsters posing as financial advisors have defrauded at least 19 investors in France, causing about €1.5 million in losses, and a suspect in Brazil was arrested after extracting roughly 360,000 real from a victim. The attacks often involve voice phishing (vishing) and fake IT‑support calls to capture multi‑factor authentication codes, threatening to expose data. Authorities in multiple countries have dismantled related criminal rings, while Google plans to add AI‑based fraud‑call detection to Android devices.