This anti-scam checklist can protect you against the latest AI-enhanced frauds

Recently, I received an email solicitation from a PR company offering to help me promote my book. While I get these kinds of solicitation emails on occasion, this one impressed me with the level of detail it included about both my book and my career. Feeling pleased that someone had done their homework on me, I showed the email to my spouse. He took one look at it and knew that it was a pitch generated by artificial intelligence. It was clear to him that the sender had asked an AI to craft a personalized pitch after trawling the internet for information about me. When I received almost identical pitches from four other companies within the next two weeks, I realized the first message was just the vanguard of a new type of spam email. Although the PR pitch I received wasn’t exactly a scam, it was the kind of solicitation that I usually delete with prejudice. The personalization-via-AI meant it bypassed my usually well-honed bull hockey detector—and it reminded me that there’s no level of intelligence, diligence, or stability that can guarantee someone will never get played. Unfortunately, as technology and scams continue to grow more sophisticated, we are all increasingly vulnerabl…