Scammers are weaponizing artificial intelligence to supercharge fraud schemes just as holiday shopping peaks, according to Google's latest security advisory—and the results are devastating.
More than half of adults worldwide experienced a scam in the past year, with 23% reporting actual financial losses, according to the 2025 Global Anti-Scam Alliance report cited by Google's Trust & Safety teams.
What's changed? Criminals are increasingly misusing AI tools to efficiently scale and enhance their schemes, making fraudulent content nearly indistinguishable from legitimate sources.
The Six Scams Google Is Warning You About
1. Online Job Scams Targeting Desperate Seekers
Fraudsters are creating sophisticated fake recruitment campaigns that mirror legitimate hiring processes. These operations demand upfront registration or processing fees while using fake application forms and fraudulent video interviews to harvest sensitive banking details and personal identification documents. Worse, they often deploy Remote Access Trojans (RATs) disguised as interview software, giving criminals complete access to victims' devices.
2. Negative Review Extortion Hitting Small Businesses
Bad actors are "review-bombing" business profiles with fake one-star ratings, then demanding payment to remove them. Google's response: a new direct reporting mechanism for merchants to flag extortion attempts, enabling faster takedowns of malicious actors.
3. AI Product Impersonation Scams
Cybercriminals are exploiting widespread enthusiasm for AI tools by creating sophisticated scams impersonating popular AI services, promising "free" or "exclusive" access to ensnare victims. These manifest as malicious apps, credential-stealing phishing sites, or "fleecewear" apps with exorbitant fees hidden in fine print.
4. Malicious VPN Apps Stealing Your Data
Fake VPN services disguised as privacy tools are actually delivering info-stealers and banking trojans. These apps exfiltrate browsing history, private messages, financial credentials, and cryptocurrency wallet information—the exact opposite of what legitimate VPN services protect.
5. Fraud Recovery Scams: Double Victimization
Perhaps the cruelest scheme: fraudsters targeting people who've already lost money to scams, posing as blockchain investigators or law firms promising to recover stolen funds for an upfront fee. Victims end up losing thousands more on top of their initial losses.
6. Holiday Shopping Scams Ramping Up
Google is fighting package tracking scams with new protections for Pixel 9 users who opt into Enhanced Protection in Chrome, using local Gemini models and Safe Browsing. Scammers create fake storefronts, impersonate delivery services demanding redelivery fees, and promote "too good to be true" Black Friday deals.
How to Protect Yourself
Google's defenses include AI-powered scam detection in Messages, Gmail's enhanced phishing filters, and Play Protect's fraud blocking. But user vigilance remains critical:
- Never pay upfront fees for job applications or promised asset recovery
- Verify URLs carefully and only download from official app stores
- Use secure payment methods with buyer protection
- Enable two-factor authentication on all accounts
- Report suspicious activity immediately through official channels
With holiday shopping in full swing and year-end job searches accelerating, these AI-enhanced scams represent a new frontier in digital fraud—one where the old rules of "just look for typos" no longer apply.