Survey: 57% of Americans Fear Falling Victim to Online Scams

A recent Gallup survey highlights a growing concern among Americans regarding scams, with 57 percent of the respondents fearing being tricked by internet scammers.

The Hill reports that in a recent Gallup survey, a majority of Americans have expressed their fears about falling prey to online scams. The survey, released this week, found that 57 percent of respondents are either frequently or occasionally worried about being tricked by a scammer or providing access to a financial account. This anxiety only ranks behind the fear of identity theft, which concerns 72 percent of Americans.

The survey was conducted in October and involved telephone interviews with 1,009 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of four percentage points.

The survey sheds light on various crime concerns among Americans. While 51 percent are worried about car theft or break-ins, other concerns include home burglary (44 percent), physical harm to school-aged children (42 percent), mugging (37 percent), and being attacked while driving (33 percent). The fear of becoming a hate crime victim, murder, and sexual assault also feature prominently, with lesser percentages.

The survey revealed that eight percent of respondents have been tricked by a scammer into sending money or providing access to a financial account in the past 12 months. Moreover, 15 percent reported that someone in their household has been victimized by this crime. Other crimes such as identity theft, vandalism, and theft were also reported, both personally and in the respondents’ households.

For the first time, scamming was included in Gallup’s annual measure of Americans’ crime victimization, highlighting the increasing relevance of this issue. The survey also revealed a demographic vulnerability to scams. U.S. adults without college degrees and those with lower incomes were more likely to report falling victim to scams in the past year. Specifically, 20 percent of respondents with an annual income below $50,000 reported a household member falling victim to a scam. Younger people, particularly between 18-29 years old, also reported higher instances of scam victimization.

Breitbart News recently reported on advanced versions of “grandparent scams” that use AI-generated voices to fool people that their relatives are in distress.

The Palm Beach Post reports that the evolution of AI technology has opened new avenues for criminal activities. A recent report highlights how AI is now being used by scammers to clone voices and gather personal information from social media platforms to perpetrate more convincing scams.

This development is particularly alarming in the context of the notorious “grandparent scam.” In its original form, this scam involved fraudsters calling elderly individuals, impersonating their grandchildren, and making urgent requests for money to cover emergencies like bail or car repairs. The scam’s effectiveness was often limited by the scammer’s ability to convincingly impersonate a family member. Scammers often resort to claiming to have a cold to account for the difference in their voice.

However, with the advent of AI technologies, scammers can now create more compelling and personalized scams. By using audio and video clips found online, they are using AI to clone the voice of a family member, adding a new layer of deception to their schemes. This makes the scam more convincing and harder to detect, preying on the victims’ trust and emotional vulnerability.

Read more at the Hill here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.