AI Scammers Can Outperform Humans at Building Trust, Study Finds

A new study finds that AI chatbots can outperform human scammers in the trust-building phase of “pig butchering” fraud, where victims are groomed over months before being lured into fake crypto investments. Researchers from universities in India, Italy, Australia, and Israel simulated scam conversations and found the AI effectively impersonated a human and matched or exceeded human performance in establishing rapport. The study highlights how generative AI could automate the most time-consuming part of these scams, which steal billions of dollars worldwide.