Scammers Make Use Of Artificial Intelligence And Return To Check Fraud
By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor
Actor Johnny Depp is friends with a Bank of Dade customer, actress Demi Moore needs money from a Citizens Bank and Trust customer, and Major Tommy Bradford (Dade County Sheriff’s Office chief deputy) is calling and texting people demanding money to address legal problems—at least that’s what scammers would have you believe.
Under the guise of famous people, whether Hollywood A-listers or Dade’s own prominent figures, scammers attempt to extort money from unsuspecting people.
The Sentinel covered the topic back in 2023, so see the May 24, 2023, edition for a summary of the scam/fraud landscape at that time. The main changes since then are a decrease in debit card fraud but an increase in check fraud and the new prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI).
Both Bank of Dade and Citizens Bank and Trust report that everything covered in the 2023 article is still relevant. Shannon Henry (Bank of Dade president) said that to protect yourself from these classic scamming methods, “It’s going back to the simple things: Don’t click on links or emails you’re not 100 percent sure about.”
As for the new usage of AI, Seth Houts (Bank of Dade VP, information security officer) and Jeannie Bruce (Citizens Bank and Trust BSA officer) offered some insight.
Houts reported that one customer believes she is talking to Depp and another believes he is talking to a celebrity, but he won’t say which one. Both of the celebrities say they need money. Houts has shown these customers videos about deepfake (fake videos, images, or audio), but they still believe they are talking to a celebrity.
Houts showed the Sentinel one impressive example of a deepfake of Morgan Freeman. “In real time now, they can change your voice and your face to be whoever,” said Houts.
The banks primarily see AI used in romance and relational scams where scammers play the long game of building relationships before asking for money. Online love interests take time to convince their victims that it’s a real relationship before asking for money. Celebrity impersonators talk to their victims for a while before convincing them that the celebrity’s money is all tied up in investments or lawsuits.
Of romance scams, Houts said, “You hear more about it with elderly women, but it happens just as much with men, but they don’t report it as often.”
The Citizens customer believes that he met Moore on an app, and when she asked for money, he started sending her gift cards. Bruce reported that this customer also sends gift cards to other people he’s met online, believing them to be women.
Bruce keeps an eye on his account, and when she sees large amounts, she calls him to ask about it. “All he gets is social security, and he spends it all on gift cards and sends them to these women who are probably not even women. I try to keep an eye on it to where he’s not doing that.”
Both banks agree that loneliness is a big reason why people fall for these scams. As Bruce said, “It’s because they’re lonely, and this person is talking to them and paying attention to them.”
AI is also being used to target grandparents (or parents) by stealing their grandchildren’s voices and creating an emergency situation. “The grandkids are posting themselves on social media, and it only takes a small snippet of audio to be able to clone a voice,” explained Houts.
Scammers can easily find out information about families, steal the kids’ voices from their social media videos, and use AI to replicate their voice. The unsuspecting family members pick up the phone and hear their loved ones say that they are in the hospital or had a car wreck and need money or were arrested and need money for bail.
As for the recent impersonations of Bradford, in November, the sheriff’s office received multiple reports of scammers calling and texting citizens under the guise of Bradford. This is far from the first time something like this has happened.
Captain Chad Payne (public information officer) reported that it’s always the same types of scams: scammers pretend to be the DCSO and threaten legal action or say they have a warrant for your arrest, or they make up a fake fundraiser for the department. It all comes back to asking for money and/or personal information.
This November, the scammer(s) didn’t clone Bradford’s number, but they have cloned the DCSO number before.
The sheriff’s office reiterated again that they will never call or text demanding money. The office said, “If you ever receive a call like this and need reassurance, contact the agency through a verified number, and they will almost certainly tell you that it wasn’t them.” As Payne said, “If it doesn’t feel right, if it doesn’t smell right, it probably isn’t right.”
Both banks also advise that if a phone call or text seems suspicious, you should hang up, look up the real number (not the one that is calling you), and call the organization to ask if they just called you.
There are several red flags that indicate you’re being scammed. The biggest one is being asked for money. “As soon as you have to send them money, that’s a scam,” said Bruce.
In romance/celebrity scams, the scammers build a relationship before asking for money. In family member impersonations, they create an urgent scenario and immediately ask for money. “They get you in a panic and create that emotional response,” said Houts. “Then, logic goes out the window.”
Also, pay attention to the method of sending money. Scammers often ask for gift cards, so this should always be treated as a red flag. They also sometimes direct you to a Bitcoin ATM so you can send them cryptocurrency. (Trenton has Bitcoin ATMs at Food City and Vic’s Wine and Spirits.)
Slowing down to think logically can save you from scams, but it can be hard to do so in the heat of the moment, so the banks suggest getting someone else’s perspective. Houts said, “Go to a trusted source. Go to your bank, go to the sheriff’s office. Find a neutral party who can help discern if it’s a scam or not.”
Henry added, “Everybody needs to talk to their parents and grandparents and let them know that this stuff is out there. If they’re ever not sure, they need to call a family member or the bank.”
Ask yourself, why would a celebrity be contacting a random person through the internet? Depp and Moore have net worths estimated to be $150 million and $200 million respectively (per online sources), so how would they have no way to access money? For the family situations, does their story line up with everything you know about their lives? Can they answer questions that only they would know the answer to?
Lottery scams and fake prize scams are always prevalent, this time playing off people’s excitement instead of their fear. When someone thinks they’ve won something, “Logic goes out the window,” said Henry. “Who doesn’t want to win the lottery or Publishers Clearing House?” Houts added.
Take a moment to think: Have you played the lottery or entered a giveaway? If not, you certainly did not win. Also, the lottery does not contact winners; winners must come forward themselves with the winning ticket.
Houts often informs customers that they’re being scammed. “They want to believe me, but they say, ‘What if it’s real? What if you’re wrong?’” The excitement, fear, or relational investment blinds them.
As we covered in the 2023 article, remote work scams are also common these days. For these, a big red flag is when your so-called employer says they’ll send you money, but you need to send a portion back. That’s a scam.
Bruce said, “The younger people just going into the workforce, they don’t know that that’s not how it works. And older people going back into the workforce, they’ve never worked from home before but now they’re going to, so they think this is just how it works now.”
One Citizens customer didn’t seem like someone who would fall for a work scam, but she did. “She’s an extremely smart woman, so it just shows that the scammers are sophisticated in talking people into doing stuff,” said Bruce.
In this scenario, the scammer sent the woman personalized checkbooks that seemed to come from a couple of large banks. “I asked her if she has an account at these banks, and she said she didn’t,” said Bruce. “I asked, ‘Where do you think these checks come from?’ When I laid it all out for her, it didn’t make sense to her either.”
This year (2025) was the first year that Citizens saw AI scams at play locally, but Bruce said, “That’s being overwhelmed with the check fraud.”
Houts explained, “The people committing fraud pick the low-hanging fruit.” Debit and credit cards were the low-hanging fruit for a long time because the strips weren’t encrypted, but with tokenized chips and tap-to-pay, cards are now more secure. Checks once again became the low-hanging fruit, so scammers have been using check fraud heavily again.
Houts said individuals are sometimes targeted, but scammers often choose municipalities, large businesses, and other such places that keep a large balance, “something that’s going to clear and hopefully not be noticed.”
All the thief has to do is get ahold of a check from the business or organization so that they have the account number, routing number, and a check number. “That’s really all they need,” said Houts. “They’ll copy the logo, create a check, and sell them on the dark web. Anyone can go on Amazon and order check stock.”
Bruce reported that one of Citizens’ customers had 42 checks (made payable to 32 different names) attempt to clear his account. Thankfully, he noticed immediately or else he would have lost over $15,000. This all started when one of his signed checks was stolen.
Bruce said, “These checks aren’t sophisticated looking. You can tell it’s fake, but there’s not an easy way to catch the scammer. You’ve got all these different people cashing all these checks at different banks.”
Both banks use software along with the human eye to prevent fraud. Mobile deposits are all reviewed by staff, and of an AI software that Bank of Dade recently purchased, Houts said, “It’s kind of like fighting fire with fire. The software uses AI to analyze checks.”
Bruce said, “I don’t want to say stop using checks, because we still use checks, but be careful with checks laying around. If you use mobile deposit, shred the check afterwards.”
Similarly, Bruce advises against writing your PIN on your debit card. She has customers who have done this, but “there’s not anything we can do with PIN-based transactions. We can’t get your money back. We do try, but it’s hard.”
One other danger to be aware of in our chronically online culture is extortion/blackmail, especially sextortion. A “New York Post” article from Dec. 10 is just one article that covers this sad state of affairs. It’s titled, “Sextortion scams led 38 US teens to die by suicide over five years: ‘I have yr nudes and everything needed to ruin your life.’”
The article begins, “Thirty-eight teenage boys in the US have died by suicide since 2021 after falling victim to ‘sextortion’ scammers, a top cybercrimes investigator has told The Post. Two networks have been identified as the main ones behind the sick schemes: Nigeria’s Yahoo Boys, who do it for profit, and the US-Europe-centered 764 gang, who are, more worryingly, sexual sadists, according to Paul Raffile, who has personally investigated many of the suicides.”
Thankfully, Houts isn’t aware of any suicides in our area caused by sextortion, but he does know of locals who have been victims of sextortion. He suspects that younger generations don’t take online privacy as seriously as older generations, but he encourages all ages to be careful about what you send online.
Houts recommends the “National Geographic” TV series called “Trafficked.” The show has a few episodes about scams. Hout said, “The journalist interviews the scammers, and one of them flat out said that they target Americans because we’re a relatively wealthy country and we’re stupid.”
Both banks and the sheriff’s office are happy to help people think through whether or not they are being scammed. Bruce said that sometimes customers call when they receive a legitimate notification from the bank’s fraud center that isn’t a scam, but there’s no need to fear being the boy who cried wolf. “I am more than fine for customers to be safe than sorry,” she said. “I’d rather them call every single time they’re unsure about something than get scammed.”
