It has been almost two decades since Weldong Xu, a Harvard professor, fell victim to a Nigerian Prince scam. Xu had promised his friends, students, and associates that he was raising money for SARS research. However, he ended up sending the money to Nigerian email scammers who promised him a $50 million return. This incident has become a cautionary tale for those who believe they are too intelligent to fall for such scams.
Despite efforts to combat scams like these, such as spam filters and phishing awareness initiatives, the advance-fee scam continues to thrive. In 2019 alone, Americans lost over $700,000 to Nigerian Prince scams. Even businesses are not immune, with Abnormal Security reporting over 1,000 advance-fee attacks targeting organizations.
The problem is only expected to worsen as criminals adopt generative AI to write more convincing and grammatically correct stories on a larger scale. However, there is also the possibility that generative AI could render advance-fee scams obsolete.
The basic structure of advance-fee emails has remained unchanged over the years. The sender claims to have a significant sum of money that they need help obtaining, promising to share the windfall with the recipient in return for a small upfront fee. These emails often create a sense of urgency and appeal to the recipient’s interests, such as religious beliefs. Despite these tactics, many emails are easily recognizable as not being written by native English speakers.
Generative AI, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has the potential to improve the writing quality of phishing material, making it more convincing and harder to spot. Emails that previously raised red flags due to poor grammar and style could soon be written with the same level of polish and fluency as a native English speaker. However, it is uncertain whether this would actually benefit scammers.
Some argue that the obviousness of the scam is intentional, as it repels all but the most gullible individuals, thus filtering out potential victims. In this view, any errors or red flags in the content of the email help scammers find their most promising targets. Therefore, generative AI’s ability to produce cleaner prose and better stories may not necessarily be advantageous for scammers.
Others believe that scammers simply lack expertise in language manipulation and mastery of English, and that better writing would make their scams more successful. Regardless of how generative AI affects the advance-fee scam, the responsibility will ultimately fall on individuals to educate themselves and learn how to spot and avoid scams. Increased awareness and knowledge about these types of scams will be crucial in protecting oneself from falling victim.
In a world where scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated, education is more important than ever. Learning how to identify scams and implement strategies for vetting them is essential for everyone. By equipping ourselves with knowledge and staying vigilant, we can protect ourselves from falling prey to scams and fraudulent schemes.