PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — We have a warning about a relatively new scam that is draining bank accounts of thousands upon thousands of dollars.
It is powered by A.I., but in a way we haven’t seen until now.
It’s called The Truman Show Scam because criminals create an entirely fake A.I. world and have unsuspecting consumers step right into it.
It’s named for the Jim Carrey movie about a man who doesn’t realize he’s living his life on a big sound stage for a reality T.V. show.
It all begins with a message inviting you to join an investment group that promises great returns.
“That then takes them into a group chat on Telegram or WhatsApp. And this is where the Truman Show reference comes in. The entire environment or group chat that they come into is completely A.I.-generated,” said Dave Meister with Check Point Research. “There’s no real people in there.”
The moderator of the group, as well as all the participants, are A.I. agents.
The Truman Show Scam involves various investments, stock trading, and cryptocurrency.
And beware: the criminals mimic big financial giants to make it seem like they back the program.
They also create bogus apps where you can supposedly access the investment application.
“On the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, you can download this application, but the application itself isn’t malicious,” said Meister. “It’s actually what we call a wire frame that points to a website, which is malicious and can be changed from time to time.”
When you put your info into the app, you’re actually giving criminals everything they need to drain your accounts of all of your money.
Scammers are also using A.I. to make old-school scams hard to detect by using all kinds of tools, including A.I.-generated voices, videos, and your own online information to personalize their attacks.
And according to Consumer Reports, these are the most common scams to watch out for:
The Bank Scam, where you get a text that says your account has been compromised.
The Shopping Scam, where you pay for goods you never get.
The Employment Scam, where you get a text message with a fake job offer.
The Travel Scam, where you give money to a bogus travel agent or website, or fall for a message that claims you won a dream vacation or access to an amazing deal.
Those are all intended to steal your money and information.
And a lot of those scams are on social media, so you need to be vigilant.
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