The technology behind chatbots and film effects is now in the scammer's toolkit — and it is working.

The findings

A survey of more than 5,000 U.S. adults by Gallup and the Stop Scams Alliance found that about 12 percent of people who lost money to a scam in 2025 said the fraudster used AI or deepfake tools, NBC News reported. Researchers cautioned the true share is almost certainly higher, since many victims never realize synthetic media was involved. The survey estimated that roughly 15 million Americans — about 6 percent of adults — lost money to a scam last year, part of an estimated $68 billion in total scam losses. Separately, the FBI's latest internet-crime report documented some $893 million in losses tied specifically to AI-enabled scams, Malwarebytes reported — again, a floor, since most fraud goes unreported.

What the scams look like

Three tools are doing much of the damage. Voice cloning powers a modern version of the "grandparent scam": a few seconds of a relative's voice, scraped from social media, is enough to generate a synthetic voice that pleads for an urgent wire transfer. Deepfake video has moved into corporate fraud — in one widely reported case, employees at an engineering firm wired tens of millions of dollars after a video call populated by convincing fakes of their own executives. And AI now writes phishing messages that are cleaner and more personalized than the clumsy fakes of years past, making them harder to spot.

How to protect yourself

Federal agencies and security experts converge on a short checklist that stops most of these scams before money moves:

  • Set a family "safe word." Agree on an uncommon word with close relatives. If a caller claims to be a family member in trouble, ask for it — an AI voice on the line won't know it.
  • Hang up and call back on a number you trust. Urgency is the scammer's main weapon. End the call and dial the person, bank or agency directly using a number you already have.
  • Don't trust caller ID or a familiar voice alone. Both can be spoofed or cloned. The FTC advises treating any unexpected demand for money or personal information as suspect.
  • Be wary of payment in gift cards or cryptocurrency. Courts, the IRS, police and hospitals do not collect debts that way. Anyone who insists on it is running a scam.

Where to report

Suspected scams can be reported to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at IC3.gov and to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Investigators say prompt reporting improves the odds of recovering funds and helps map fast-evolving schemes — a small act of resistance against tools that are only getting cheaper and more convincing.