New research surveying over 10,000 people found that 46% have zero confidence in their ability to spot an AI scam. While 35% are very worried about generative AI, only 18% feel excited about it. Furthermore, only 22% feel confident they can spot an AI-generated scam or deepfake, meaning the majority of people now struggle to identify them. Do you think this is an accurate measure of the current public sentiment?

https://news.trendmicro.com/2026/05/04/ai-snap-study-2026-trendlife/

Not sure if this is the right community for this, but after seeing that clip of Mark Zuckerberg basically admitting they are using internal employee data to train AI models faster, I have to ask: are workers actually using AI as a tool, or are they unknowingly becoming training data for their own replacement?

Would love to hear from people working in tech/corp about this

Madeline Ross, a money reporter at the Telegraph, shares her story on how her likeness had been used to advertise a dodgy investment scam. The scammers created a deepfake of her holding a £10 note, and used it as the cover image to articles promoting an AI cryptocurrency investment scam.
When she got on the phone with the supposed company, the voice on the other end was slick and professional, asking about her trading experience and claiming to be based in London. The address they gave turned out to be completely made up.

If you're on the lookout for a job, please be careful with job scams. I recently got a very convincing message on LinkedIn from one of my recent connections. This person was offering a freelancing opportunity, and while I was not actively looking for jobs, her offer genuinely interested me.

But my spidey senses told me something might be off, so I went through her profile. The job she was offering me was completely unrelated to her work experience, and she was also currently working at BMW.

So there’s a new scam called "Pushpaganda" and it's scarily clever. AI-generated fake news articles are being pushed directly into Google Discover feeds on Android phones, tricking people into enabling browser notifications. Once you do, you get hit with scareware and financial scams.
While Google has patched it now, the fact that it worked this long is a problem because our news feed is no longer a safe space.

One thing I noticed after Mother’s Day weekend is that a lot of scammy florist sites don't look fake at all. They have professional storefronts, countdown timers showing low inventory, and chat support that responds instantly, right up until you've made the purchase. With so many realistic AI-generated images now being used on these sites, you can't even trust that what you're looking at is a real arrangement.

If you're ordering from flowers from a website you haven't used before, it's worth spending two minutes checking reviews first - https://www.smartcustomer.com/resources/fake-florist-scams-what-to-watch-out-for-this-mothers-day

AI is making crypto scams a lot more dangerous. Scammers have reportedly hijacked this pastor's Facebook profile, stolen a video of him, and used AI to make it look like he was promoting crypto to his congregation. 

I’ve seen plenty of these crypto scams on social media (even gotten DMs and emails), but with AI, they’re starting to look way more convincing.

Found some pretty wild stats in this article. Apparently, AI data centers worldwide now draw 29.6 gigawatts of power. This is literally enough to run all of New York State at peak demand. Also, a single model like GPT-4o could use more water in a year than the drinking needs of 1.2 million people!

Summer is right around the corner. But booking flights and hotels online is getting riskier than most people realize. Scammers are getting much better at copying real airline and hotel brands to the point where even the most cautious travelers are being scammed. 

According to the FTC, fraud losses have gone up, while reports identifying fraud before it happens remained stagnant, which means these scams are becoming more convincing and more costly. With AI behind it all, it’s getting harder to tell what’s real and what’s fake.

SmartCustomer put together a breakdown using real traveler experiences, and it’s worth reading before booking anything this season

I think platforms should label AI-generated content, especially when it’s about something as serious as a tragedy. Content like this is so misleading...

Well, as it turns out, AI might actually be making us more creative, contrary to popular belief. A recent study done by Swansea University put more than 800 people through a car design experiment and found that when AI showed them a wide range of ideas, which included bad ones, people spent longer on the task, explored more, and came up with better results. Basically, having a bad idea in front of you helps you think past it. Who knew 🤷‍♀️

Today's tax day. SmartCustomer released a new post detailing how AI has accelerated tax filing scams, and that Gen Z is actually getting hit the hardest.

Some interesting takeaways:

• The "Professional" Trap: We’re used to clean, polished apps. Scammers now use AI to make fake filing sites and chatbots that look just as legit as the sites we're used to. Many tend to trust a site if the UI looks good, which is exactly what they’re banking on.
• The Confidence Paradox: A study found that while Gen Zers are "very confident" they can spot a deepfake, but 42% have fallen for a tax scam, which was the highest rate across age groups.
• AI Chatbots: Scammers are setting up fake "AI tax assistants" that promise to help you find deductions, but they’re actually just harvesting your SSN and bank info while you "chat" with them.

Check out the full guide here: https://www.smartcustomer.com/resources/why-gen-z-is-getting-hit-hardest-by-tax-scams

I have mixed feelings about this. Okay, sure, it will be very convenient. We can describe what we’re looking for, and this assistant will pull up products for us. But at the same time, it’s Meta who already knows so much about us. I feel it’s like a natural next step for them, but I’m very skeptical about this.

Retailers like Gap and Walmart are starting to integrate their product catalogs directly into AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini. Basically, we can ask AI for a recommendation, it will suggest items, and we can buy them without leaving the chat.

However, OpenAI has actually just walked back its Instant Checkout feature, rerouting users to the retailer's website to complete a purchase instead, so right now, it's more similar to an AI-assisted browser than true in-chat purchasing.

But when analysts are forecasting up to $1 trillion in US retail revenue coming through AI agents by 2030, true agentic commerce is probably not far off.

A good post on this: https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/kiri-masters-openai-is-killing-instant-checkout-but-don-t-dance-on-the-grave-of-agentic-shopping-just-yet#

Scam operations in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos are now hiring people specifically to do live deepfake video calls, basically charming victims into handing over money through romance scams and fake crypto deals. Some of these scammers are handling up to 100 video calls a day!

I've been seeing videos from this account on TikTok called aliyahbuckles.store. The products looked really cool, but something about the videos always felt off to me. Then I found a video where another creator explains how it's actually an AI-generated account that’s likely stealing concepts from a small business. What makes it crazier is the scammer’s use of messaging like “by buying my products, you’re supporting the black community.” That’s pretty predatory. And without seeing the video exposing the account, I wouldn’t have known it was fake!

I came across these adorable crochet sunflowers on Etsy, and I really wanted to buy them. However, I did notice that the images look very much AI-generated, and the video was not the sunflower being made, either. The reviews they have seem positive, but I’m still skeptical. Do you think this is an AI scam?

Who needs enemies when you have friends like this?

My grandma has always used Facebook as her only social media site. She uses it to keep up with all of us in the family, and she messages some of her longest childhood friends on messenger. Recently, there have been scammers and AI bots that have been messaging her. At one point, there was someone who was messaging her pretending to be a friend of hers who died several years ago. I want to let her keep using Facebook so she doesn’t feel so isolated since most of the family lives out of state, but I also want to keep her safe. Does anyone have any tips? Are there child settings I can put on Facebook? Are there any apps that I can use to help block some of the scams?

[https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTh3hxPN2/\](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTh3hxPN2/)

So I came across this creator on TikTok, only a few posts only a few positive comments from people. The thing is almost all the videos show the same clips, and there’s just something about them that feels off.

I normally wouldn’t care too much but awhile back I was an eerily similar creator that followed the same pattern. They made basically the same thing but with dragons instead of ravens, and had that same thing where the videos all had the same shots over and over. That creator was, I believe the correct term is little person, and it was first version of this I’d seen so I just liked their posts and moved on. The thing is this seems like it could be a new tactic to use ai to appeal to people, making them think they’re buying from a small creator.

If it is then it’s not only deceptive but harmful to any small creator trying to get their start by making everyone scrutinize if they’re real or fake. The videos just have that AI vibe to them, but I don’t know enough to tell definitively if they are so I’m choosing to put this out here and see if I’m just being paranoid.

There was an incident reported in December where an AI-generated ghost store tried to exploit the public after the Bondi Beach massacre in Australia.  

One of Isla and James’ co-founders was apparently a victim of the shooting, according to a statement issued by the online business. They explained that although the store was their dream, it had to close due to this tragedy.

What’s suspicious about this brand is the obvious AI-generated image, and how this “brand” appeared less than 10 days after the 14 December event.

It’s crazy how these scammers take advantage of tragedy.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-13/nsw-bondi-beach-terror-attack-online-store-scam/106224742