Scammers Are At It Again! Something New Minnesotans Need To Know

Remember when people used to make fun of people who had too much cosmetic surgery or alterations to their original body because they weren’t “real” anymore? Now, that’s a way of life and we don’t give it much thought. 

The same can be said about our daily interactions, they’re not “real” anymore either. What I mean is, there’s so much influence of Artificial Intelligence in play, more than we actually realize, that there’s not much organic about how we discover new things, pay our bills, or even call into a business.  Most times you’ll be met with someone sort of artificial intelligence voice that will direct you to who you are trying to reach. 

What To Look Out For

The advancement of Artificial Intelligence has gotten very good. Tech Expert Kim Komando says AI is now “scary good” in her newsletter she sent out yesterday talking about how scammers can use AI to mimic a website to get you to click on the wrong thing. 

Get our free mobile app

Her examples proved her point when it’s something as simple as leaving out a letter; such as Facbook (missing the “e” in Face) instead of Facebook. That’s a simple one but what about using this lowercase “ɑ” instead of "a". Things get a bit tricky when letters are starting to get reshaped a little, so it looks authentic.  

Kim Komando also says to pay attention for dashes (-) or periods (.) in between words to try and throw you off. You should also make sure that the letters that come at the end of the website look real as well, folks are trying to trick you into thinking there's a new platform that you’re not familiar with.  

Another piece of solid advice that Kim gives is to bookmark the websites you know are real so you can just go through your list and avoid dealing with these fake accounts. If you’re like me, every second of the day counts, and the last thing we want to have to do is to read over every website, and link that is sent to us. But that’s the way things are now.  

Scammers are counting on the fact that we are busy and won’t take the time to read everything carefully to not get fooled. Try to pay attention as close as you can, and hopefully you’ll be able to catch anything that is out of place before it causes you an issue.