University of Worcester Head of Computing says increase in artificial intelligence fraud is 'concerning'
Fraud prevention body Cifas say they are seeing a rise in cases
The University of Worcester's Head of Computing says it's 'concerning' seeing the increase in fraud generated by AI.
Fraud prevention body Cifas say criminals are finding new ways to target consumers using social media and deepfake technology.
Lecturer Richard Wilkinson believes it's important more people are aware of the new scams, which are being generated through artificial intelligence.
He said: "There's always things that we can do both as individuals and as businesses to tackle this new threat.
"Business wise, upskilling your workforce and making sure that you've got the right things in place that you need to to protect yourself can help.
"Then as individuals, we've got to be a little bit wary now as to whether something could be a scam, so just double checking and even ringing the phone number back can be some simple methods."
Research by Cifas found that identity theft remains the most dominant type of fraud, with more than 237,000 cases recorded in 2023.
They say their members have reported becoming increasingly concerned about the potential growth in fraud through AI.
"There's always people out there that want to sort of try and use these technologies for bad purposes," Richard said.
"It's very concerning at the moment, and with technology developing at such a pace, it has made being able to fake things and scamming people a lot easier than it's ever been.
"In the past I think most of us have learned to identify scam emails and phone calls, but it's worrying now that there's new ways developing, and we have to try and deal with that."
The study by Cifas also revealed they had seen an increase in AI-enabled identity fraud, such as phishing, QR codes, and fake audio.