Calm beats clever
The feeling is the warning sign
Spelling mistakes used to give scams away. Not any more. The reliable warning sign now is a feeling: urgency, secrecy, fear, or a sudden chance you must take right now, usually ending in a payment, a login or a code. Scams are built to rush you past your own judgement, so the defence is to slow down on purpose, however polished the message looks.
What AI changed
Three things. Scale: one template becomes thousands of personalised versions in any language. Imitation: a few seconds of someone's voice from a video can be enough to fake a call that sounds like them. Volume: floods of fake reviews or comments can bury real ones. What AI did not change is what you should do about any of it.
Check through a route you already trust
Don't use the link, number or reply address in the message. Open the bank's app or type its address yourself. If a relative calls in distress asking for money, hang up and call them back on the number you already have, or ask a question only they would know. Many families now agree a code word for emergencies. Real organisations will never mind you checking.
If you have already clicked or paid
Act quickly and without embarrassment: these scams are designed to fool careful people. Call your bank using the number on your card, change any password you typed in and turn on two-step verification, and report it to your national fraud reporting service or the police (in the US, the FTC). Our Spot AI Scams and Fake Media course goes deeper on each type.
Think of a message that once made you want to act immediately. What feeling did it use?