It took one click and a matter of minutes. Paul's computer screen suddenly turned black. Reams of IP addresses rained down his monitor, accompanied by an ominous message: A virus, triggered by a malicious link, had infiltrated the device. Its removal, according to the disembodied voice on the other end of the phone, would cost $12,000.
But Paul wasn't actually speaking with a Microsoft customer service agent. The scammer, whose number flashed across the screen when the computer was compromised, told Paul his bank account had been breached. The attacker routed the 79-year-old Gainesville retiree to another agent—this time, someone claiming to represent Bank of America.
Paul asked WUFT not to disclose his last name, citing privacy concerns.
The new agent promised to help settle Paul's balance, remaining on the phone as his target scurried around town, attempting to purchase $12,000 worth of gift cards. The scammer would then instruct Paul to share the card information before taking off with the money. Fortunately, staff at several of the stores Paul visited declined to authorize transactions exceeding certain thresholds.
The criminals ultimately stole about $1,000, charges Paul is working with his bank to dispute. He's also been in touch with local police, who are investigating the incident.
But the lasting damage wasn't monetary.
"I didn't even want to talk about it when it first happened," he said. "I felt so humiliated."
The scheme that ensnared Paul back in February is one of many such attacks ripping through the United States.
Americans in 2024 lost more than $12.5 billion to fraud, up 25% from the year prior, according to data from the Federal Trade Commission. Total losses are likely much higher, the agency notes, but many crimes go unreported, in part due to victims' shame.
While online phishing scams aren't new, they've become more pernicious. That's largely thanks to artificial intelligence. AI makes cyber thieves better at what they do. It can erase the sloppy markers that once alerted victims to fraud, helping scammers launch more convincing, targeted attacks.
Older adults and their families, experts say, will need to remain vigilant as threats evolve and risks mount.
Fraud, unbound
Most people who've spent time online have encountered a scam. The internet is fraught with hidden pitfalls designed to entrap the unwitting scroller. Behind this link or that download, bad actors promise, lies a trove of Bitcoin or a lucrative job opportunity.
Digital natives—those born into the internet age—are especially exposed. Young people who grew up with devices in their hands often think they're adept at spotting fraud. But that breeds complacency. Members of Gen Z, according to a Deloitte report, are more than three times as likely to fall victim to online scams as their parents and grandparents.
On average, though, older adults suffer steeper financial loss when targeted.
It's not that seniors are easily duped; they're just contending with different challenges, according to Thomas Blomberg, executive director of FSU's Center for Criminology and Public Policy Research.
Criminals strike where they sense the greatest opportunity. Adults aged 85 and older comprise the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population. They also control a significant share of the country's household wealth, making them prime targets of cybercrime.
Attackers find plenty of ways to reach their victims. They pretend to be government officials, doctors and insurers offering help with services such as Medicare and Social Security. And they masquerade as parcel carriers just when their targets are expecting a delivery.
Then they harvest the victims' identities or credit card information.
Trust, in this environment, can be a liability, Blomberg said. And older generations have it in ample supply. Baby Boomers—adults born between 1946 and 1964—tend to put their faith in others, Blomberg said. That includes strangers on the other end of the phone or side of the screen.
"They believe in a person's word, their handshake; that means something to that older generation," he said. "Unfortunately, that's fast slipping away."
Scammers exploit victims' trust through social engineering, a form of psychological manipulation that often involves feigned charm to lure targets.
Nobody wants to be made a fool. As people become aware they're being taken advantage of, they may find it challenging to connect with others, according to Julie Brancale, an FSU criminology professor and colleague of Blomberg's. That, in turn, can diminish quality of life.
Older folks tend to lead more solitary lives than their younger peers, Brancale said. The onslaught of scams has forced some into even greater social retreat.
"They don't want to talk to anybody else," she said. "They're afraid of, you know, is this person that I'm meeting actually being genuine, or are they going to try to scam me?'"
That fear grips Betty, a 64-year-old retiree in Naples. Betty, who asked WUFT to withhold her last name, said she's been more discerning in recent years about which calls and messages merit her attention, worried there's a scam lurking around every corner.
"I'm very cautious about that and very concerned about that because I know it happens all the time, everywhere," she said.
Several years ago, Betty's family received a phone call from someone posing as an Amazon customer service representative. The scammer had nearly breached the household's shared computer before they realized the conversation was fraudulent and hung up.
"It was pretty scary," Betty said.
Beyond isolation and loneliness, those targeted in scams can endure physical suffering.
Exposure to financial exploitation and other kinds of fraud has been correlated with elevated blood pressure and, over time, premature mortality in older Americans, particularly among men, according to a 2022 academic paper.
And as scammers adopt advanced technologies to supercharge their ploys, no one is immune.
Weaponizing AI
Phishing looked much the same in the early 2000s as it did the decade before, at the onset of the digital age. Criminals sent bulk emails, claiming to represent companies such as eBay and PayPal, to steal credit card data from unsuspecting online shoppers. Scammers later broadened their reach through instant messaging.
Generative artificial intelligence has quickly become the defining tool in the new frontier of cybercrime.
Scams of the past were often laden with poor grammar and spelling, alerting recipients to their fraudulence. But a quick pass through a chatbot can iron out the kinks in written copy.
The proliferation of package-delivery scams—attacks in which criminals pose as parcel carriers to steal consumers' banking information—has benefited from AI-powered tools that generate near-flawless text and images.
Simply put, AI is a force multiplier, said Arun Vishwanath, a cybersecurity expert and founder of a cyber-safety education firm. With a single chatbot prompt, criminals can create realistic-looking messages and deploy them at scale.
The e-commerce boom has certainly exacerbated the issue, Vishwanath said. People anxiously awaiting an Amazon haul—or three or four such shipments—are more likely to engage with scams claiming they need to "resolve an issue" with their delivery. That's when they click the link embedded in the message, allowing scammers to steal their information.
Shielded behind AI-polished text and generated images, criminals can more easily rack up the clicks they're seeking, Vishwanath said.
"They're trying to work with something familiar, like a familiar brand, a familiar process," he said. "So your mind no longer processes the nuances and the details."
Vishwanath advises shoppers to visit a company's official website or app to resolve legitimate delivery issues and never to click unsolicited "parcel tracking" links.
The risks don't end there.
AI is also adept at data aggregation, which can help scammers tailor outreach to their targets. Criminals leverage large language models—the systems underpinning services such as ChatGPT—to crawl victims' online footprint. Information shared on a public social media account, for example, can help craft hyper-personalized text messages.
Adults grappling with loneliness and cognitive decline might be more receptive to outreach that incorporates personal details, said Marti DeLiema, a professor in the University of Minnesota's School of Social Work.
DeLiema recommends minimizing sharing activity on platforms such as Facebook to avoid providing attackers with ammunition. But scrubbing social media accounts isn't enough on its own.
"The problem is it is a bit of a whack-a-mole and cat-and-mouse [game]," she said. "They evolve and use new technologies, we create controls, and then they find ways to evade those controls."
Phishing and cyber fraud victims can report incidents to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center.
Beyond that, a few easy-to-implement safeguards can make a difference.
Practical defenses
The first step in blunting cyberattacks is education—that is, understanding existing threats and their key indicators. Studying past attacks is particularly instructive in risk prevention, and that means victims must feel comfortable speaking out.
Older adults who've been affected by scams often feel embarrassed to discuss their experiences, according to Peter Lichtenberg, a professor of psychology and gerontology at Wayne State University.
Fear of ridicule keeps many victims from reporting the scam, said Lichtenberg, who studies financial exploitation and financial capacity in older adults. Some worry that sharing their story with family and friends could strip them of their autonomy.
"What happens is somebody older is engaged in a scam, and people say, 'Mom or dad really can't manage their money anymore; let's move in," Lichtenberg said, adding that in most cases, that's not the best course of action.
Families are better served, he added, engaging in open dialogue about money and decision-making before considering next steps, such as moving in with parents or establishing power of attorney.
When it comes to handling the sheer volume of calls, texts,and emails people receive every day, Jeff Johnson, state director of AARP Florida, suggests a pretty simple strategy: pause, take a beat and then decide if it's wise to respond.
"Often it is less about [being] tech savvy than it is about time and attention," Johnson said. "We're all pulled in so many different directions, particularly by our phones, that it's easy to see a text and think, '[I] gotta deal with that right away.'"
Scams know no age or income bounds, especially as criminals find more ways to cloak their threats in AI-enhanced smokescreens.
"Hopefully, it kind of reduces the stigma of any particular person's history of being scammed," Johnson said. "It's not you; it's the scammers."
Copyright 2026 WUFT 89.1/90.1 NPR News/Talk for North Florida
