ALBANY, N.Y. (WRGB) — Advancements in technology are helping scammers become more sophisticated, making fraud harder to spot and harder to stop, according to New York consumer protection officials and an attorney.
While scams are often associated with seniors and older adults, “any age group can be targeted,” said Katie Sherwin, director of the Division of Consumer Protection at the Department of State.
Sherwin said that in 2025, New Yorkers reported losses of $7.33 million to scams across the state. She cautioned that the figure likely understates the true impact.
“It’s important to note that those are really only reported losses,” Sherwin said. “So we know that people have lost much more than that, but not everybody reports.”
Sherwin said scams have evolved alongside technology, and that artificial intelligence is making fraud more targeted and more difficult to detect.
“AI has enabled scammers to make much more complex, targeted, and undetectable scams, and they can also reach many more people more efficiently,” Sherwin said. “So you might be getting targeted with details that are very specific to you.”
She said common advice that once helped people identify suspicious messages is no longer as reliable.
“We used to be able to give guidance like, if you get an email with misspellings or poor grammar, that’s a clue that, you know, it might be a scam, but now with AI there’s no way to detect them,” Sherwin said.
Sherwin also pointed to a rise in fraud websites that appear legitimate, along with voice-cloning technology that can make a scam call sound like someone the victim knows.
“So family members or even business associates are receiving phone calls that they think are from, you know, their friends or colleagues,” Sherwin said. “So again, it’s—we just have to be suspicious of everything. We have to be very careful and ensure that we verify.”
Greg Rinckey, a founding partner at Tully Rinckey, said some scams are easier to catch than others, including cases where someone tries to get money through in-person meetups or gift cards.
“Cases where somebody is trying to scam someone out of money by asking them to either meet them somewhere or, you know, provide them gift cards to Walmart or something like that,” Rinckey said. “A lot of times, those kind of get caught.”
But Rinckey said recovering money can be difficult in other situations, especially when funds are moved quickly or sent overseas.
“But still, if it’s an overseas account and the money’s being Zelled or something from your bank account, or wired, it’s not always easy to recover that,” he said.
Officials urged people to be suspicious, double-check, and verify claims. Anyone who believes they are a victim of a scam can contact police or the Division of Consumer Protection’s consumer helpline at 800-697-1220.
