Artificial intelligence (AI) is swiftly reshaping our reality, sparking innovation across diverse domains. Yet, amid this advancement lies a pressing issue: deepfakes. These ultra-authentic synthetic media pieces can alter videos or audio to fabricate instances where individuals seem to say or do things they never actually did.

On many occasions, we receive completely unexpected calls from phone numbers we don't know. Let's imagine the situation: you're sitting on your sofa in the middle of the day, and your mobile phone rings from an unknown number. You don't pick it up, but the first thing you ask yourself is, who is calling me? Is it important, or is it spam? There are valuable tactics to avoid receiving spam calls, and finding out who called me is one of the first steps to avoid scams and fraudulent calls.

By being aware of these scams and taking steps to protect yourself, you can safeguard your personal and financial information.

Hackers spread malware through fake Google Sites pages, cybercriminals exploit APIs, and an APT campaign targets global government entities.

In 2023, based on wire fraud statistics nearly a quarter of consumers received suspicious communications, which may have occurred over text, email, phone, or social media. Of those who interacted with the sender, one in twenty consumers fell victim to wire fraud, which begins over electronic channels. That same year, consumers lost a reported $10 billion to fraudulent activities, a significant portion of which began as wire fraud.

The growing inter-connectedness of digital systems, combined with the alarming ingenuity of financial criminals, has led to a convergence between payment fraud, cybercrime, and AML. As financial transactions increasingly occur online and real-time payments have expanded to over seventy countries, cybercriminals are exploiting these trends by developing sophisticated schemes to target vulnerabilities in digital payment systems.

As Tax Day in the U.S. looms on the horizon, so too does the risk of falling victim to online scams. In 1986, the first year that e-filing was available, five people filed their returns electronically. Since then, the popularity of e-filing has increased so much that 92% of individual tax returns are now e-filed. As online tax filing and payment have become more popular, though, scams targeting unsuspecting taxpayers have as well.

Dive into the shadowy world of AI-generated deepfakes and investment scams to uncover how scammers do it--and how to avoid getting tricked.