Criminals use AI to pull personal information from social media accounts, scam family members

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The ABC7 I-Team has an alert on a new scam, social scraping, and it might get you to think twice before putting too much personal information on Facebook, Instagram, or X.

ABC7 has shown how criminals troll your social media for detailed personal information and use it to scam you or family members. Now, they are using artificial intelligence to make their schemes easier to carry out.

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Digital behavior analysts at BioCatch explained to the I-Team how it is happening. Jonathan Frost with BioCatch says scammers are using AI to gather information quickly.

"I mean, that's the thing about a super-efficient; it doesn't get lazy. It doesn't get tired. It will work 24/7" Frost said. "Criminals are using the same sorts of technologies that legitimate businesses are to improve the sort of quality of their deceptions, but also to make it much easier for them to collect the information, process it, and format it into something that's going to really convince you that actually they know more about you than they really should."

BioCatch says their 2025 report shows a 65% increase in global scam attempts. Many times, when a bad actor uses information, they find it on your social media accounts.

Your mom's maiden name, your dog's name, and your favorite restaurant are all gathered by scammers, so they can pretend to be you. They can then execute the kidnapping scam or the car crash scam and trick your loved ones into sending money.

"Fundamentally, fraudsters are always about urgency. They always want to create a situation in which you're going to fail to apply the normal good sense that you would," Frost said.

In 2024, the I-Team showed you how AI can be used to piece your voice together from your social media and create a scam call.

Tech experts from Transaction Network Services used AI to clone ABC7 I-Team Consumer Investigator Jason Knowles' voice from the news and tested it on customers at a local cafe.

"I think any form of unexpected approach, whether through a social media messaging platform, an unexpected connection request, or an unexpected phone call should be treated with significant doubt," Frost said.

Always be mindful of what you're putting on social media and avoid oversharing. Also, if you get one of these scam calls and you think a relative or loved one is in danger, and you're asked to send money, don't panic. Hang up and call your loved one back on your own to check. You should always have a safe word to weed out these types of scams.