Navy veteran Mitchell Gordon saw a social media video promoting a government refund website. Thinking it was real, he entered his personal information and paid $200.
The next day, he tried to cancel.
"All I wanted was the $200 back, so that's when everything started," Gordon said.
The $200 loss grew exponentially after scammers convinced the 77-year-old to give them access to his computer. In just eight days, he lost $45,000.
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"I went from being in middle class to poverty," Gordon said.
How AI is fueling cyber-enabled crimes
Gordon's experience reflects a growing national crisis. According to the FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report, Americans lost nearly $21 billion to cybercrime last year. People 60 and older account for $7.7 billion of those losses.
Because they tend to have more savings and home equity, scammers deliberately target older Americans.
"They're really exploiting their trust, their financial stability, sometimes their limited tech knowledge," said Thomas Clayton, president and COO of Aura.
Artificial intelligence is making scams harder to spot, and the pitches, whether they come by phone, text, or email, more personal.
Jeff Lunglhofer, chief information security officer at Coinbase, said AI allows criminals to tailor their approach to individual targets.
"It may reflect information about your job, your personal interests, your background. In other words, it's going to be a very targeted scam directly at you," Lunglhofer said.
AI is also making scams cheaper to run. Boston Consulting Group estimates the cost of operating a scam will drop 90% within the next two years, which could lead to a significant jump in fraud activity.
Fraud prevention
To keep your finances and personal information safe, consumers should treat unsolicited contact as suspicious by default.
"A big step consumers can take is just not to respond when you get those unexpected incoming calls or text messages or emails. Just to treat all of that as suspicious until proven otherwise," said Kimberly Palmer, a personal finance expert at NerdWallet.
Some lawmakers are working to address the problem. Earlier this year, a bipartisan pair of senators introduced the ReportScams.gov Act, which would create a centralized scam reporting website and a Federal Scams Action Plan. More than a dozen federal agencies currently receive complaints about scams, but there is no single strategy to counter them.
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"This scam economy is booming and it's being exponentially accelerated with AI," Clayton said. "Having a centralized reporting system, one, it makes it easier for consumers to know where to go, but two, it makes it easier for law enforcement to spot trends much quicker and be able to stop scams as they emerge."
The ReportScams.gov Act is still early in the legislative process. In the meantime, experts say not to focus on trying to identify what is AI-generated. Instead, watch for classic red flags — urgency, secrecy, or requests for unusual payments like gift cards or wire transfers.
