I got to my 89-year-old mother’s home just in the nick of time.
She’d been using her computer when her screen locked and a large image appeared:
“You’ve been compromised,” the red letters said. “Call Microsoft immediately at 800-xxx-xxxx!”
She was on the phone with the fake tech support agent when I arrived.
New Era of AI Scams
Remember when email scams were easy to identify?
Misspellings, broken English and awkward phrases, such as “kindly send to me,” were dead giveaways.
Those days are gone.
Scammers use AI to produce flawless emails that mimic your bank, your boss or a government agency — or clone a loved one’s voice from a short audio clip.
Consider these recent real-life frauds:
After receiving a frantic call from her daughter, Bay Area mom Deborah Del Mastro wired $5,400 to “kidnappers.” But her daughter wasn’t kidnapped. Scammers used an AI app to clone her voice.
In Michigan, Brian and Wendy VanDoeselaar wired $66,026.92 to their loan officer — but the account was fake and the loan officer’s voice was also an AI clone. They lost the money and the property.
A finance employee at construction giant Arup joined a Zoom meeting with his CFO and other colleagues, who told him to wire funds to a new vendor — which he did. His “colleagues” were AI deepfakes and the scam cost his company $25 million.
The Elderly at Risk
When I arrived at my mother’s home, the fake tech-support agent had already gotten my mother to download remote-access software. I stopped him before he could activate it.
Had he succeeded, he might have searched her computer for passwords and financial records. He would have found a Word document labeled “PASSWORDS” — a dangerous practice she no longer follows.
With access to her financial information, he might have connected her with a fake bank fraud investigator, who would claim her savings were in danger and persuade her to move the money to a supposedly safe account controlled by the criminals.
The fake investigator likely would have coached her through the process, directing her to wire funds, buy cryptocurrency or purchase gift cards and read out the codes.
In 2025 alone, the FBI received 17,000 reports of such tech-support scams.
One couple in Maine lost $1.1 million, a New Hampshire woman lost $1 million and two women in Rhode Island and Massachusetts lost $200,000 each.
Beware Traditional Scams
Scammers are still using traditional telephone calls to carry out fraud.
In 2019, a 79-year-old widow in Pittsburgh answered a call from a man who claimed to be a DEA agent.
He said her identity had been stolen and that she was caught up in an international drug-money scheme; if she did not help, he warned, she could be investigated and lose her Social Security number.
Over the next four months, she wired roughly $4.3 million into a scam Bitcoin account — her life savings gone.
Cybersecurity Awareness Month Guidance
Many people still assume cybersecurity is mainly a problem for large companies and government agencies.
In reality, individuals — especially older adults — are the most frequent targets.
According to a landmark 2020 study by Stanford University, human error — clicking a phishing link, sharing sensitive information on fake forms or falling for trick calls — is the primary driver behind up to 88 percent of all digital compromises.
That is why a key National Cybersecurity Alliance theme this year is “Don’t Make It Easy for Them.”
The new defensive rule of thumb is straightforward:
Treat every unexpected urgent request — especially one involving money, remote access or account “protection” — as potentially fraudulent until proven otherwise.
Do not talk to suspicious characters on the phone or click links and download software.
Do call your bank, Microsoft or the family member back using only legitimate phone numbers or websites — never the number or link the caller just gave you.
No legitimate financial or government official will ever ask you to move money into a “safe” account or buy Bitcoin or gift cards.
Always avoid and report phishing emails; use strong passwords, passphrases and a password manager; enable multifactor authentication; and be sure your software is up to date.
Prepare for Increasing Scams
To keep abreast of emerging scams, review free resources available at cisa.gov/cybersecurity-awareness-month and staysafeonline.org.
If you or a loved one is targeted, report it immediately at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and ic3.gov. Adults 60 and older can also call the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 1-833-FRAUD-11.
Everyone is at risk of being scammed in the “wild west” digital world in which we all now live.
We must learn how to protect ourselves and our elderly loved ones as scams multiply and grow more sophisticated by the day.
Find Tom Purcell’s syndicated column, humor books and funny videos of his dog, Thurber, at TomPurcell.com. Email him at Tom@TomPurcell.com.