FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Scams of all kinds are soaring.<\/p>\n
According to 2025 data from the Federal Trade Commission, $2.1 billion was lost in social media scams. That’s eight times more than in 2020.<\/p>\n
Ron Kerbs, Founder and CEO of Kidas, a scam detection service, says these impostors often rely on urgency and fear tactics.<\/p>\n
“We definitely help to protect people from AI-generated scams,” he said. “The most common scams that you can see these days are voice cloning.”<\/p>\n
In addition to identifying deepfakes, they shield gamers from predators.<\/p>\n
He says falling victim to fraud is less about being gullible and more about being targeted while vulnerable.<\/p>\n
“Don’t think that you’re too savvy to be scammed,” Kerbs said. “I run a scam detection company, and I was almost scammed three weeks ago.”<\/p>\n
Kerbs says when he was looking for help with a canceled flight, an AI-generated list of customer support contacts offered a fake phone number.<\/p>\n
When the person on the other line didn’t seem legitimate, he hung up.<\/p>\n
“They set it up intentionally to scam people like me who would call those numbers in order to change their flight or in order to get a refund,” Kerbs said.<\/p>\n
Take your time, do your research and don’t let anyone rush you into making a financial decision.<\/p>\n
For news updates, follow Vanessa Vasconcelos on Facebook<\/a>, X<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2026 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n