AI-enabled scams targeting US consumers

In July 2026, U.S. authorities highlighted a surge in AI‑driven fraud, noting that cybercriminals were using synthetic voices, deep‑fake videos, and automated phishing to target seniors. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center logged over 22,000 AI‑related complaints in the prior year, with victims reporting roughly $890 million in losses, contributing to a total cybercrime cost of about $21 billion in 2025.

By early August, additional data showed the problem was even broader. Nearly three‑quarters of American adults reported encountering an online scam each week, and FBI figures placed 2024 losses at $16.6 billion. Romance fraud alone exceeded $1 billion, disproportionately affecting older women. Investigations traced many schemes to West African fraud groups in Nigeria and Ghana, leading to INTERPOL’s Operation Red Card 2.0, which secured 650 arrests across 16 African nations. Simultaneously, OpenAI disclosed a coordinated network operating from Cambodia that leveraged ChatGPT to generate convincing fraudulent content. OpenAI responded by disabling the implicated accounts and sharing intelligence with law‑enforcement agencies.