Could AI Help Protect You from a Scam?

By Cat Stone

Retirement Transition Specialist and Creator of Your Personal AI Support Team

The phone rings.

The caller says there has been suspicious activity on your bank account and you need to act

immediately.

Or an email arrives that looks remarkably like it's from a company you do business with. There is

a problem with your account. Just click here.

Or maybe it's a text from someone who appears to be your grandchild. They're in trouble. They

need money. And please don't tell Mom and Dad.

What do you do next?

Increasingly, I'd like the answer to include one very important word:

Pause.

Scammers depend upon urgency. They want us frightened, excited, worried or confused enough

that we act before we have time to think.

So what if we had another set of eyes available at exactly that moment?

I believe artificial intelligence can sometimes provide those eyes.

Not as the final authority. Not as a replacement for your bank, a trusted professional, family

member, law enforcement or independent verification.

But as a Second Opinion that helps you stop and ask better questions before you act.

Meet Your Personal Second Opinion

Over the past several months, I've been developing a program for Third Agers called Your

Personal AI Support Team.

It grew out of my own experience using Chat GPT.

I discovered that the real power of AI wasn't simply asking it questions or having it write

something for me. The relationship became much more useful when I began giving AI specific

roles in my life and work.

So I created a team of three.

My Chief of Staff helps me organize, prioritize, plan and keep my many ideas from all

demanding my attention at once.

My Thought Vet challenges my thinking. Instead of simply agreeing with me, I want it to look

for holes in an idea, question my assumptions and point out something I may not have

considered.

And then there's my Second Opinion.

Before I make an important decision, respond to something questionable or move forward when

I'm uncertain, I can ask for another perspective.

That same habit could be surprisingly useful when we're confronted with a possible scam.

Imagine Doing This Instead

Suppose you receive an email that concerns you.

Rather than clicking the link or calling the phone number in the message, you could take the non-

sensitive text of the message to your AI Second Opinion and ask:

“What concerns you about this message?”

“What red flags should I be noticing?”

“What should I independently verify before I respond?”

“What questions should I ask before I do anything?”

Notice what we're asking AI to do.

We're not asking it to make the decision for us.

We're using it to help us think.

That's an important distinction.

Sherri Combs, founder of Silver Streak Senior Services, told me she already uses AI in much the

same way herself. If something doesn't look right, she'll ask AI what seems suspicious, what she

might be missing and what she should verify before doing anything. She also encourages people

in her fraud-prevention classes to consider AI as another tool.

That fits beautifully with something Silver Streak already teaches through its PROVE IT™

fraud-prevention methodology: stop, question and verify before taking action.

AI can help with the questioning.

Humans still need to do the verifying.

Here's the Catch: AI Can Be Wrong

This may be the most important part of this article.

Artificial intelligence can sound extraordinarily confident while being completely mistaken.

It doesn't “know” something simply because it presents an answer beautifully. It can

misunderstand information. It can miss a warning sign. It can even invent information that

sounds plausible.

And there is another concern: privacy.

Don't paste passwords, Social Security numbers, bank account information, credit card numbers

or other highly sensitive personal information into an AI conversation just to have it evaluate a

suspicious message.

If your AI Second Opinion says, “Looks legitimate to me,” that is not permission to proceed.

Verify independently.

If a message supposedly comes from your bank, don't use the phone number or link in the

message. Contact the institution through a channel you already know is legitimate.

If someone claiming to be a family member asks for emergency money, contact that person—or

another family member—through a number you already have.

AI can say:

“Here are five things I'd investigate.”

Then you investigate them.

That's what makes it a support tool rather than a decision-maker.

The Scammers Have AI, Too

There's an uncomfortable reason I believe older adults need to become more comfortable with

artificial intelligence.

Scammers aren't avoiding it.

As Sherri put it to me, AI can be used for good or evil depending upon whose hands it is in. Her

view is that if scammers are already using AI, we shouldn't be afraid to teach older adults how to

use the same technology intelligently and responsibly to help defend themselves.

I couldn't agree more.

My generation has adapted to enormous technological change during our lifetimes.

We don't need to become AI engineers.

But we do need to become AI literate.

We need to understand what it can do, what it can't do, when it's useful, when it is not—and how

to remain firmly in charge of the relationship.

That is Why I am Building the Team

This fall, I am launching the first in-person Your Personal AI Support Team program here in the

Denver area.

Over four weeks, participants won't simply sit in a classroom and hear me talk about artificial

intelligence.

They'll build their own team.

We will create their Chief of Staff, Second Opinion and Thought Vet together, inside their own

Chat GPT accounts. We'll practice using them with real-life situations and, importantly, learn the

boundaries of what we should and shouldn't ask AI to do.

An online version of the program is planned for January so Third Agers outside Colorado can

participate as well.

My objective isn't to make people dependent upon AI.

It's almost the opposite.

I want people to become better thinkers because they have learned how to use AI well.

Ask another question.

Challenge the assumption.

Look for what you missed.

Slow down.

Get another perspective.

And then use your own judgment.

Your New Fraud-Prevention Habit

So the next time something lands in your inbox, appears on your phone or pops onto your

computer screen and makes you think—

Something about this doesn't feel right...

Pay attention to that feeling.

Don't click.

Don't send money.

Don't give anyone your personal information.

And don't let someone else's sense of urgency become yours.

Pause. Question. Get a Second Opinion. Then verify.

Technology will continue to change.

So will the scams.

But one of the most powerful tools we have for protecting ourselves hasn't changed at all:

Our willingness to stop and think before we act.

AI might just help us do that a little better.