Generative artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT could be aiding the proliferation of more convincing email scams aimed at stealing money from businesses, according to cybersecurity firm Fortra.
In the first quarter of 2023, threats in corporate inboxes hit new highs with a quarter of all reported emails classified as malicious or untrustworthy, Fortra said in a recent report. Nearly all of these threats (99%) were classified as impersonation attacks.
Fraudsters appear to be turning to generative AI to assist them in crafting well-written email messages at scale — without the poor spelling and grammar that has historically been associated with scams, John Wilson, a threat research senior fellow at Fortra, told CFO Dive. Recent evidence also suggests that scammers may be relying on AI to perform language translation, he said.