Cheap AI tools can now fake video, voices and messages well enough to fool careful people. Scammers use them to pose as loved ones, and older adults lose the most.
AI fakes have crossed a line. This year, many popular AI tools gained the ability to make realistic video with sound, at almost no cost to the user. Scammers are using that power to pose as family members and other trusted people. Even trained scientists cannot always tell what is real and what is machine-made.
A few years ago, the worry was voice cloning, where a scammer copies a loved one's voice to pressure a victim into sending money. Now text is part of it too. Chatbots like ChatGPT make scam messages more convincing and much cheaper to send. Imposter scams, including romance, tech support and job fraud, are on the rise, and it is harder than ever to know who is real online.
Vox's reporter, a longtime tech writer, got fooled himself. His daughter's daycare sent a photo of her smiling class. His wife noticed that every baby's face was AI-generated, including their daughter's.
Everyone. Ed Baig, who covers technology for AARP, said the security risks are the same for younger and older people. Surveys from the past five years also show younger people are more likely to fall for certain scams.
Still, the money lost by older adults is climbing fast. A new Federal Trade Commission report says people over 60 lost about $3 billion to scams in 2025, up from about $600 million in 2020. Older adults are more likely to be targeted but less likely to lose money. When they do lose it, the amounts are large.
Fewer older adults reported losing money than younger people did, by 14 percent. But the sums differ. In 2024, the median reported fraud loss was $450 for people in their 30s, $1,000 for people in their 70s and $1,650 for people in their 80s.
Part of the reason is money. Older adults tend to have more of it, or to part with larger amounts. Normal aging may play a role too. Some research links weaker memory to a higher risk of falling for phishing, which means fake messages meant to trick you into giving up information or money.
The alert box above lists the steps. The idea is simple. Make it harder for scammers to reach you, and agree on a way to confirm that a caller, a video or an account is who it claims to be. Diana Freed, a Brown University professor of data science and computer science, said a family safety plan is very helpful. Set it up before a scare, not during one.
The safest assumption, the article argues, is that anything can be convincingly faked. That means everyone in the family, young and old, may need help working out what is real. Handling it together gives the best chance of getting through unharmed.
Agree on a family codeword and a habit of hanging up and calling back a saved number, before a fake call asks you for money.
The Attala County Sheriff's Office in Mississippi says scam calls are reaching residents, and a call that sounds official may not be.
Read more: Mississippi sheriff warns residents about scam phone callsScammers are posing as Texas sheriff's officers and claiming you missed jury duty. Caller ID can show a real police number even when the call is fake.
Read more: Fake jury duty calls spoof a real Texas sheriff's phone numberFake PayPal emails and texts, some posing as a security report, try to get you to tap a link and type your login. Checking your account directly avoids the trap.
Read more: Got a fake PayPal message? Skip its link and check your account yourself
