Published September 6, 2026
Here is the short answer: before you act on a message that asks for money, login details or personal information, paste its wording into a free AI chatbot and ask what looks like a scam — then verify anything it flags through a phone number or website you looked up yourself, never the one in the message.
Scams used to be easy to spot. Bad grammar, obvious fake prizes, an email from a prince who needed your bank details. Those still exist, but the ones that matter now are better written, better designed, and often built with the same AI tools you might be using yourself.
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One of these pitches got further with me than I’d like to admit. Not because of the income number — because the idea underneath it was something I already thought was possible. I just didn’t know where to start. That’s the part that made it work on me, and it’s exactly what these pitches are designed to do.
The good news is that AI can help you on defense too. You do not need to become a security expert. You need a few habits and a couple of free tools you check before you click, pay, or share information.
Why scams got harder to spot
The scale is not small. The Federal Trade Commission received 3 million fraud reports in 2025, with $15.9 billion in reported losses — up from 2.6 million reports and $12.5 billion in 2024. Reported losses have risen nearly 430% since 2020. Investment scams were the largest single category at over $7.9 billion, roughly half of everything reported that year. Those figures come from testimony by Lois Greisman of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection to the Congressional Joint Economic Committee on March 25, 2026.
AI writing tools fixed the tell-tale signs people were trained to look for. Spelling errors are gone. Sentences read naturally. Logos and layouts can be copied in minutes. A scam email or text message can now look identical to something your bank or a delivery company would actually send.
Voice and video are catching up too. Cloned voices and edited video clips are being used in scams that impersonate a family member, a company executive, or a public figure. You cannot rely on “it sounded off” the way you once could.
The signals that still work are the ones that do not depend on polish. I set those out in the red flags that show up in almost every scam, and in the longer step-by-step guide to spotting AI-powered scams.
This does not mean you are defenseless. It means the checking has to move from gut feeling to a quick, repeatable process.
Use AI as a second opinion, not a final answer
Before you act on a message that asks for money, login details, or personal information, paste the text into an AI chatbot and ask it to look for scam patterns. You can say something like: “Does this message show signs of being a scam or phishing attempt? Explain what stands out.”
The chatbot cannot verify whether the message is real. What it can do is point out pressure tactics, mismatched links, urgency language, and requests that do not match how legitimate companies normally operate. That is often enough to make you stop and check through an official channel instead of the one the message gave you.
Treat this as one input, not a verdict. If the AI says a message looks fine, that is not proof. If it flags concerns, take that seriously and verify independently.
A simple checklist before you click or pay
- Do not use the phone number, email address, or link inside the message. Look up the company or person separately and contact them through a channel you already trust.
- Ask an AI chatbot to review the message text for scam patterns, then verify anything it flags on your own.
- Slow down on urgency. Real deadlines from banks, government agencies, and courts almost never depend on you acting in the next few minutes.
- Check the sender’s actual email address, not just the display name. Look for small misspellings in domain names.
- If a call or video seems to be from someone you know but is asking for money or sensitive information, hang up and call that person back on a number you already have.
Reverse-check images and video
If you receive a photo or video that seems designed to convince you of something urgent, you can use a reverse image search to see where else it appears online. If a “news” photo of a disaster or a “live” video of a public figure shows up attached to unrelated stories from months or years earlier, that tells you what you need to know.
This will not catch everything, especially newly generated content, but it catches a surprising amount of recycled and repurposed material used in scams.
A word on how I picked the tools below. Each is named because it does one specific job in this checking routine, not because it is the best-known brand. Where I have reviewed one in depth, the review is linked — including what the tool does not do.
Protect the information scammers rely on
A lot of scams work because the scammer already has some real information about you: your name, address, phone number, or details about your family. Much of this comes from data broker sites that collect and sell personal information, often without most people realizing these sites exist.
You can also do this part yourself for nothing. Here is how to remove your personal information from the internet, broker by broker, using the free opt-outs.
A service like Incogni works by sending removal requests to data broker sites on your behalf on an ongoing basis. This will not stop every scam attempt, but it reduces the raw material scammers have to work with, which makes convincing, personalized scams harder to build.
Keep your accounts harder to break into
Scams are not only about tricking you into an action in the moment. Many aim to get one password so the attacker can move into other accounts. Reusing passwords across sites makes this easy for them.
A password manager like RoboForm lets you use a different, strong password for every account without having to remember each one. This is one of the simplest changes you can make, and it closes off a common path scammers use once they get a single login.
If you would rather compare the options before committing to one, I ranked them in the best password manager guide for seniors.
Watch your identity, not just your inbox
Some scams are not trying to get money from you directly. They are trying to open accounts, file claims, or take out credit in your name. This kind of identity theft can go unnoticed for a while if nothing is monitoring for it.
A service like Aura monitors for signs of identity theft and alerts you if something looks wrong, which gives you a chance to act early instead of finding out months later from a collections notice.
Whether that is worth a subscription is a fair question, and the answer is not the same for everyone. I went through the pricing, the overlap and the limits in my Aura review.
Public Wi-Fi and unfamiliar networks
If you check accounts or enter personal information while connected to public Wi-Fi, such as at a library, coffee shop, or hotel, a VPN like NordVPN encrypts your connection so that traffic is harder to intercept on that network. This is worth using any time you are on a network you do not control.
If the term is new, here is what a VPN actually does — and, just as usefully, what it does not.
Build the habit, not just the tool list
None of these tools replace judgment. They reduce risk and buy you time to think. The core habit that matters most is simple: when something asks you to act fast, pay, or share information, slow down and verify through a channel you chose yourself, not one the message provided.
Scams built with AI are more polished than they used to be. Your response to them can also be smarter than it used to be. Use the tools above as a normal part of how you check messages, not as something you only reach for when a message already feels wrong. By the time something feels wrong, a well-built scam has often already done its job.
The tools will change. Checking through a channel you chose yourself will not — that is the part worth keeping. Last reviewed August 2026.
FAQ
Can an AI chatbot tell me for certain whether a message is a scam?
No. A chatbot can point out pressure tactics, mismatched links and requests that do not match how a real company behaves, but it cannot check whether the sender is genuine. Treat it as a second opinion that tells you where to look, then verify through a phone number or website you found yourself.
What should I do if a call sounds exactly like a family member asking for money?
Hang up and call that person back on the number you already have for them. Cloned voices are convincing enough that trusting your ear is no longer a safe test. If you cannot reach them, check with another family member before you send anything.
Is it safe to paste a suspicious message into an AI chatbot?
Paste the wording, not your details. Strip out account numbers, passwords and anything that identifies you first. The chatbot only needs the language and the structure of the message to recognise the usual patterns.
Do I need to pay for tools to protect myself from AI scams?
No. The two habits that do most of the work — checking through a channel you looked up yourself, and slowing down on anything urgent — cost nothing. Paid services like data removal, a password manager or identity monitoring reduce how much raw material a scammer has to work with, but they are an addition to the habit, not a replacement for it.