Beware of AI Scams That Can Fake Your Family Asking for Money

FENTON, LA. (999 KTDY) - Artificial intelligence (AI) is growing at such a rapid pace it can be difficult to figure out what is real and what is fake. You may be sent a video from a family member claiming they are in trouble, and they need you to send them some money. You need to proceed with caution according to what Fenton Police Sergeant Vernon O'Quinn told KLFY.

They call them deep fake videos. These are produced by scammers using your family member's likenesses and voices. They "say" in the video that they need money, and they say they will explain everything another time. It's all fake, but they are very convincing.

O'Quinn says he got a message via Facebook from his brother-in-law asking for money. He knew it had to be fake so he called his brother-in-law who quickly confirmed he was not in dire need of money, and he didn't create and send this video.

While Sergeant O'Quinn didn't fall for this he wanted to talk about to help warn other people. These videos are convincing, and if you haven't heard about the scam before you could be susceptible to sending money.

O'Quinn offers the following pieces of advice:

• Never send money or gift cards without checking to make sure it's really your loved one that needs it.
• Never send anything to someone you don't know or that you are unsure of.
• If someone scams you or attempts to scam you, please report this to the police.
• Never give out any of your personal information to anyone.

O'Quinn says,

You know social media is an open door for them to collect all of your personal information. They'll generate a picture, they'll generate a voice because you have videos on your Facebook.

Yep, that's right. Your voice, your face, and your videos are all over social media, and that just helps scammers to get plenty of your information to try to use against you.

A great resource in our community to find out about the latest scams that are active in our area is the Better Business Bureau's Scam Tracker. You can see what has been attempted, and the scams that have succeeded, and you can report your information so that your neighbors will know what is happening in this area.

It's imperative that we pay attention to regular mail, email, calls, and text messages. Don't click on anything you aren't sure you know. It's better to stop and contact a company or person on your own instead of following a link that put malware on your devices that can capture all of your information.