Combatting online scams in the age of AI

One in four Europeans has fallen victim to an online scam, from identity fraud to fake romances. The rise of artificial intelligence is ushering in new risks. Minh Nguyen, Chief Product Officer at security solutions provider Entrust, says both online platforms and governments can play a role in protecting consumers and businesses.

"The last couple of years have been fascinating in terms of seeing the evolution of the fraud landscape, and it ultimately boils down to how we create trust," Nguyen says. "We've seen the rise of deepfakes and AI, and it's much easier now for fraudsters to take your voice, to take images that are publicly available on social media, and try and recreate your identity, to impersonate you, in an attempt to access, for example, your bank account."

He believes the introduction of an EU digital wallet is a first step towards protecting data. "The EU have been one of the leaders globally in both protecting consumer and citizens' data, but also ensuring that we can access services and products online in a secure way." 

Nguyen says that despite its risks, artificial intelligence can also help build countermeasures to new types of fraud. "We are also developing solutions that are better at combatting AI and deepfakes, that are able to bring multiple layers of fraud detection together, in detecting things like organised crime, so spotting patterns in fraud rings when they tend to use similar types of devices, or IP or time zones." 

"I always check the type of links that are being sent to me – so if they redirect you out of the platform, it's usually not a good sign (...) If there's any doubt, it's better to err on the side of caution. You can always contact a platform's support service."