The threat from AI-powered online scams is on the rise. You can be fooled by realistic-looking fake emails and messages pretending to be from your bank or other companies, that convince you to unwittingly install malware on your device. How can everyday people have a chance against these hugely sophisticated schemes? Avast has the answer – fight fire with fire. It has launched a new AI assistant that can answer security-related questions about communications you may suspect are fraudulent, as well as check URLs to see if websites really are what they report to be.

The easy access that scammers have to sophisticated AI tools means everything from emails to video calls can’t be trusted.

As the internet weaves its tentacles more and more into the lives and homes of people around the world and artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more mainstream, does this put more and more people at risk at the hands of the international scamming organizations? In the past few weeks, a number of scams have been reported involving both small and large sums of money. In one, a Canadian retiree purchased a California condo. He had his bank wire a deposit to the sellers California bank account and waited for instructions on paying the outstanding balance of $820,000 Cdn. An email supposedly from the realtor handling the sale advised the balance should be wired to a different bank than the one the seller paid the deposit to.