TEMPE – After her daughter was arrested in Florida, a Tempe resident was desperate to contact her and bail her out. So when she received a call from someone claiming to be a bail bondsman in Florida, she acted quickly. She verified the person’s information, who provided her daughter’s actual case number and the name of a real Florida bail bondsman, and then sent hundreds of dollars to a CashApp account the person on the phone claimed would bail her daughter out. It was only after she sent the money that she realized it was a scam.
The story resonated with the 20 or so other attendees at Tempe’s recent artificial intelligence information meeting, which was hosted by Connect Tempe and the Arizona Corporation Commission. All of the attendees were older adults and were there with a clear goal in mind: learn more about AI, scams and their potential dangers.
“I need to be more informed with technology and what’s happening in the world, because it’s not going away,” said Dana Brazelton, 67, at the event. “If I just stay uneducated about it, it’s just going to harm me.”
Tempe is designated as an age-friendly city by AARP, and part of that designation is to help keep the older residents informed and educated about the potential dangers of new technology, said Tempe Community Health Program manager Megan Wilson.
“Once we get that on our radar, we want to make sure we are proactive and really provide that education to the community of what to look out for,” she said.
The event is part of this community outreach, which has several classes being held throughout the city in June alone. Many of the attendees said they joined the session after hearing about it in a previous class. That kind of community is one of the biggest weapons against scams, said Lucero Gonzalez Alvarado, the Arizona Corporation Commission’s investor education and outreach coordinator.
“This could happen to everyone,” she said. “These are getting really good, especially with AI. So I feel like the first thing is listening to people.”
The rapid refinement of AI and its uses have given scammers much more sophisticated methods to target vulnerable populations, especially seniors, Gonzalez Alvarado said. Now, she is leading efforts to inform older adults about the newest ways bad actors are trying to cheat them of their money. Perhaps the scariest one is an AI voice changer that allows the scammers to sound exactly like someone else, including family members.
“AI imitating someone you know to get you to give them money for an emergency, or imitating a professional, a celebrity, to have you invest, that’s a common scam,” she said. “Billy’s on the phone in California telling me they need $3,000, and they’ve cloned Billy’s voice to try to get the money.”
It can cause serious fear among the individuals being targeted. One talked about being sent a fake party invite by her friend whose email had been hacked. Many shared the fear of not knowing whether malware was downloaded on their computer. However, they left feeling a little more informed and confident.
“I increased my understanding of the various methods of scammers,” said attendee Jeanette Costa, 81. “Especially how fear is used.”
She also said that with technology continuing to evolve, she will continue to attend the classes that Tempe is putting on.
“AI is constantly evolving, so I have to stay caught up, for sure,” she said.
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