Concern AI making it harder to catch scammers targeting people in North Yorkshire
A Counter Fraud expert says advances in the technology are "very frightening"
There's concern that advances in AI is making it harder for the police to catch scammers targeting people in North Yorkshire.
Andy Fox is a counter fraud co ordinator for the Yorkshire and Humber regional crime unit.
He says fraudsters can now create completely new images pretending to be someone else: "One of the first things when we look at romance fraud victims, we look at the photographs and do a reverse image search to find where that image is on the internet. But if someone has generated a whole new image using AI technology that image is not going to be there and that reverse image search won't work."
"It won't be long before you have a real looking individual that can have a two way conversation with you and can answer your questions and use hand gestures and facial expressions."
"It's incredibly frightening, incredibly sophisticated, it's only going to get better and the fraudsters are going to capitalise on that fact."
The warnings come as new report show a surge in cases of romance scams.
Romance scam reports increased by more than a fifth (22%) last year compared with 2022, according to data from Lloyds Bank.
The average amount lost to romance scams last year was £6,937, slightly down from £8,237 in 2022.
People aged between 55 and 64 were most likely to report being scammed by fraudsters masquerading as love interests, Lloyds said.
Across all age groups, men were more likely to report having been scammed by a romance fraudster. But women were more likely to report bigger losses, at £9,083 on average, compared with £5,145 typically lost by men.
People aged 65 and 74 tended to lose the most money, losing £13,123 to romance scams on average.
Romance scams target people looking for love, and often criminals will use fake photos and make up reasons for why they cannot meet in person. Common excuses involve working away in the armed forces or in international aid and charity work.
Scams can last over long periods of time, as the fraudster builds trust with their victim.
Eventually they will ask for money, usually claiming family issues, medical bills or needing money to arrange travel to meet up with the victim. It may start as small amounts and build up over time.