Scam calls using artificial intelligence in the movie “Thelma” are becoming a growing threat

While this story has been dramatized for Hollywood, the danger of such scam calls – also known as grandparent scam or family emergency scam – is authentic and is becoming easier in the age of artificial intelligence.

According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, total losses from fraud last year amounted to almost $2.7 billion. But there are ways to stay vigilant, say financial experts, such as blocking your own creditors or appointing a power of attorney for a vulnerable parent.

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The scam attempt that befell the real Thelma, the now 103-year-old grandmother of writer and director Josh Margolin, was almost identical to the one in the film. In the film, Thelma embarks on an epic adventure with a scooter and a gun to track down her con artists and get her money back.

In real life, Thelma’s family was prevented from transferring the money.

“I think the kind of emotion that led to the action there was definitely real and something I wanted to dramatize in the film as well,” Margolin told CNBC. “She was kind of preparing herself to do it because she was really panicking. And luckily she called my parents.”

Scams like the one Thelma fell victim to are becoming more common, experts say. Imposter scams were the most common type of fraud reported to the FTC in 2023, and the agency has seen an increase in reports of business and government scams.

Social media is fertile ground for collecting content for these scams.

According to computer security company McAfee, thanks to advances in generative artificial intelligence, a fraudster can play just a few seconds of audio from a TikTok video and make the collected voice say whatever they want.

“Everyone should know that deepfakes are becoming more popular and more common and easier to make. And there are entire industries focused on scamming people,” says Carolyn McClanahan, a certified financial planner and physician who founded Life Planning Partners in Jacksonville, Florida.

Typically, AI voice scams mimic emergency calls. It could be someone stranded on the side of the road after their car broke down, or someone calling from a prison in a foreign country claiming they need bail. The common denominator is that the call is coming from someone you care about who needs money “quickly.”

A 2023 survey by McAfee found that 25% of adults have fallen victim to a similar artificial voice recognition scam – and the company says 77% of victims lost money as a result. The company surveyed 7,054 adults in seven countries, including 1,009 in the United States.

Thelma’s age in the film was a factor in her vulnerability.

“They target older people because as we get older, we lose our cognitive flexibility, which means we can’t make decisions as quickly and therefore take longer to think things through,” said McClanahan, a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council. “And that’s why these scammers use techniques like fear and urgency to get you to act immediately.”

But it’s not just older people who are at risk; younger people who spend more time online are also increasingly at risk, says CFP Andrew Sivertsen.

“When you think about Generation Z and young millennials, the number of impressions they get online using technology is exponentially higher than seniors, and that’s why they’re also more likely to fall victim to scams,” says Sivertsen, a senior planner at the Planning Center in Moline, Illinois.

It can be difficult to talk to an older loved one about the risk of cheating, and much of the film is about Thelma wrestling with her own autonomy in this situation.

After falling for the scam, she had to accept that she needed help with technology and self-care, but she was not ready to give up her freedom.

“You have to find a way to process the feelings you have when you see someone going through something like that. But you also have to do it in a sensitive way so that when you talk to the person about it, you don’t add to the shame and embarrassment that I think is probably already there,” Margolin said.

One way to proactively address this is to create a retirement plan in your late 50s or early 60s and include other family members in that conversation. McClanahan said she does this with her clients to determine who can act as a financial surrogate later in life.

“If you wait until someone shows symptoms or cognitive problems, they become defensive and deny reality,” McClanahan said. “They’re afraid of losing control, afraid of losing their freedom.”

Even basic security measures can make a big difference.

Sivertsen recommends locking your credit accounts and setting up multifactor authentication for social media and bank accounts to protect your personal information from fraudsters. You can also purchase identity theft insurance, he said, which can help recover compromised information.

If you or a loved one falls victim to a scam, you can go to usa.gov/where-report-scams and enter details about the scam to be directed to where to report the scam.