AI Is Helping Scammers Become More Believable, Putting Retirement Savings At Risk

Artificial intelligence is helping scammers put older investors and their nest eggs at risk.

Artificial intelligence is making financial fraud more sophisticated and harder to detect.

An original report in Barron’s details how scammers use AI to create convincing identities and schemes that target older people nearing or already in retirement.

One case Barron’s highlights involves a 63-year-old woman who joined an online dating platform. She connected with a man who claimed to be a high-ranking U.S. Army official serving in Syria. The relationship moved from the dating platform to private chats, texting, and video calls. The man provided what appeared to be a passport when asked for identification. Over four months, requests for supplies, gifts, and loans ultimately led the woman to transfer approximately $150,000 through PayPal, wire transfers, and cryptocurrency. After reporting the incident, authorities recovered about $35,000.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has separately warned about relationship investment scams, in which criminals build trust through friendship or romance before directing victims toward fraudulent investments. The agency describes these schemes as a “long con” and advises people to be skeptical of unsolicited investment opportunities, regardless of how much they trust the person presenting them.

According to the Barron’s report, AI can help fraudsters identify potential victims, create sophisticated communication, and produce fake content at scale. The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report reported more than 22,000 complaints involving AI-related information, with adjusted losses exceeding $893 million.

“It is an industrial revolution for fraud criminals,” a source named Kathy told Barron’s about AI’s impact.

Furthermore, the threat extends beyond fake romantic partners. The SEC has also taken enforcement action against investment firms accused of making misleading claims about their use of AI.

As AI makes deception cheaper and more convincing, protecting a nest egg increasingly requires protecting the information and relationships surrounding it, too.