{"id":530266,"date":"2026-03-12T00:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T00:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/530266\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T00:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T00:39:11","slug":"rising-number-of-scams-now-use-ai-toronto-police-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/530266\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising number of scams now use AI, Toronto police warn"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

A growing number of scammers and fraudsters are using artificial intelligence (AI) to quickly gather personal information that they later \u201cweaponize\u201d in targeted scams, Toronto police are warning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCriminals are now able to gather information faster, personalize their approach, and impersonate trusted individuals or organizations like banks, government agencies and even the police with far greater credibility,\u201d Det. David Coffey, who\u2019s with the Toronto Police Service’s financial crimes unit, said at a news conference Wednesday marking fraud prevention month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coffey said that while the scams themselves aren\u2019t changing, AI tools are being used to scan social media and online profiles to tailor them to each individual with \u201cremarkable precision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is now being weaponized is our own information against us,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they’re calling us, they’re calling us by name. They know where we live, they know where we bank.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reported losses from confidence scams \u2014 where scammers gain a victims\u2019 trust to steal assets or money from them \u2014 neared $50 million in Toronto last year, said Coffey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Everybody is a target\u2019<\/p>\n

Francis Syms, associate dean of the faculty of applied sciences and technology at Humber Polytechnic, said AI scams make \u201ceverybody a target\u201d because scammers can automate them and do them \u201cen masse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that it\u2019s automated and it can be done through scripts and computer programs, they can go to bed at night [having] sent out 500 scam emails that are hyper-personal, and then just look at their bank account the next morning,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the news conference, Coffey also mentioned that previous advice against getting scammed \u2014 which focused on protecting your identity \u2014 is no longer valid because people\u2019s personal information is \u201calready out there,\u201d whether it\u2019s from their digital footprint or from data breaches on platforms that they\u2019re registered with like online banking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TorontoToronto police Det. David Coffey says a rising number of fraud scams are now being done with the help of artificial intelligence. (CBC News)<\/p>\n

Syms said that while Canada has protections on preventing that information from being sold, the rules are weaker in the United States, which is also where a lot of online platforms are based.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re signing up to new platforms, you have to assume that this concept of privacy is disappearing fast. Anything you put into those platforms, that information may go somewhere else, whether you intend for that to happen [or not],\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

‘Don’t panic,’ says expert<\/p>\n

Coffey said that scammers will usually try to convey a sense of urgency and panic by relaying very personal details in a call or email, and it’s important to “slow down” if that happens. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe awareness has to be on the fact that your information is out there and that these callers are going to call you and they’re going to use that information,\u201d said Coffey. <\/p>\n

Syms said that measures like safe words for family members to authenticate a call can help identify a scammer, and to also keep in mind what information is absolutely necessary to accurately share when signing up for a new site. <\/p>\n

“If you sign up for a new site and it asks for information such as your birthday, if that information is not really required to do business with that site, put in other information,” he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe bottom line is, people shouldn\u2019t panic.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-530266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}