Generative Artificial Intelligence is the bold new frontier. More commonly known as GenAI, it has been the cause of a lot of recent headlines. Now it’s here.
And criminals have taken note.
“Where I see AI being leveraged more is in the fraud arena, related to scams and social engineering,” said Sue Ross, head of Fraud Prevention at Regions Bank in a recent article for Wealth Insights. “You know, we used to be able to say, ‘Hey, when you see that email, look for misspellings and odd grammar.’”
“Now, that’s become harder for people to detect.”
The reason is generative AI, which learns from computers and people. Scammers combine the newest technology with old-school tricks to try to harm the innocent. So, the attacks are familiar, but the tactics are cutting edge.
Where I see AI being leveraged more is in the fraud arena, related to scams and social engineering.Sue Ross, head of Fraud Prevention at Regions Bank
Top 3 AI Scams
- Social engineering – It begins with information gleaned from different sources, including social media. Fraudsters will then use that information to gain a victim’s trust. With AI, the information is gathered at rates never seen before.
- Imposter scams – Using AI, fraudsters can create messages that appear to be “from” a trusted legal or financial institution. Or they can create fake audio or video that mimic someone you know, including loved ones. And guess what? They’re in trouble and need your immediate help.
- Business email compromise – One of the top scams to always look out for, BEC uses phishing, fake email addresses and imposter actors to gain access to your accounts.
Bobby McAuliffe manages a Regions’ Data Products team, including partnering with the Financial Crimes Detection and Prevention to protect the bank and its customers. Meanwhile, Sean Zhang’s team, which develops and supports AI models in this space, builds predictive models that help spot and stop fraudulent activity.
“The thing about AI is that it can generate email to get through all security gates,” McAuliffe said. “These hackers are getting even more sophisticated, and they can use GenAI to produce realistic texts and interactions that appear real to both Regions associates and customers. These are new takes on old tricks, just more efficient, believable, and at previously unachievable scale.”
At Doing More Today, our focus is to help protect customers and the public about ongoing threats. But Regions associates – like Ross, McAuliffe and Zhang – are focused on stopping crimes before they occur.
“A lot of Regions’ focus, beyond the education of clients, is the safeguarding of client assets and making sure there are multiple levels of authentication around the data,” McAuliffe said. “From a cyber standpoint, if people are trying to get through the walls of that security, our experts in Cyber Security make sure we have cutting-edge technology and data protection strategies.”
Generative AI is evolving, and fraudsters are adapting new tricks for old tactics every day. Sean Zhang
For Zhang’s team and Financial Crimes Detection teams, that means 24/7 detecting, monitoring and searching for anomalies – something out of the ordinary – with the help of AI.
“At a high level, our customer-facing team does jobs that are flexible and accurate in real time,” Zhang said. “Then we learn from patterns to make predictions for future transactions.”
The team is in machine-learning mode every hour of the day.
“This is an ever-evolving practice,” Zhang said. “Generative AI is evolving, and fraudsters are adapting new tricks for old tactics every day.”
From McAuliffe’s perspective, fighting fraud – especially AI scams – “is like an arms race. For example, instead of AI trying to get one person to respond to a fraud attempt they can send out thousands at a time, potentially personalized to each recipient. Banks are trying to safeguard and protect while fraudsters are using new technology for nefarious purposes.”
While Regions and other financial institutions work non-stop to help keep you safe, you can help protect yourself. For example, be wary of what you post online. Using AI, fraudsters can gather very personal information across various platforms in seconds to know you intimately. Then they’ll use that to gain your trust.
“The message to our clients is, ‘These scammers are super sophisticated,’” Ross said. “This may sound simplistic, but protecting yourself is really about getting back to the basics. Verify. Train your employees on what to look for. If you’re a small business, make sure you have a good verification process.”
In the meantime, …
“We’re all working together to make sure we’ve got the latest information on what’s happening in cyberspace,” Ross said.
Additional Resources from Regions.com
Related Articles from Doing More Today
The information presented is general in nature and should not be considered, legal, accounting or tax advice. Regions reminds its customers that they should be vigilant about fraud and security and that they are responsible for taking action to protect their computer systems. Fraud prevention requires a continuous review of your policies and practices, as the threat evolves daily. There is no guarantee that all fraudulent transactions will be prevented or that related financial losses will not occur. Visit regions.com/STOPFRAUD or speak with your Banker for further information on how you can help prevent fraud.