Sunday, August 2, 2026

AI Chatbots Now Better Than Humans at Scamming People

A new report finds that AI-powered scam bots are actually more effective than human scammers at building trust with victims before stealing from them. That means the phishing emails, fake customer service chats, or "urgent" messages your business and employees receive could be more convincing and harder to spot than ever before. For small business owners, this is a wake-up call to double down on training staff to verify unusual requests (especially around payments or sensitive data) through a second channel, like a phone call, before acting. It also means your customers may be targeted by scammers impersonating your business, so clear communication about how you'll never ask for sensitive info via chat or email is worth reinforcing. Bottom line: the bar for what a "suspicious message" looks like just got a lot higher.