First announced in 2020, the case against Long Leaf Trading Group could hardly be simpler: A boiler-room operation based in Chicago cold-called unsuspecting marks to push a commodity-trading scheme. Practically all the customers lost money while the traders collected $1.2 million in commissions.
As rip-offs go, that one seems almost nostalgic compared with today’s modern versions of consumer fraud. Sadly, maddeningly, the 2020s have become a golden age of scams. Gone are the poorly worded pitches from supposed Nigerian princes promising riches in the future to anyone sending money now.
Instead, artificial intelligence editing makes the pitches sound smooth and natural, and with voice cloning, the delivery can mimic the familiar speech of a celebrity, friend or relative. Consumer fraud cost Americans a record $10 billion last year, according to the Federal Trade Commission, and the losses are climbing sharply. Law enforcement is better equipped to deal with the old-fashioned likes of Long Leaf Trading than the latest high-tech con artists.
Artificial intelligence and other new technology make it much more difficult for even die-hard skeptics to protect themselves from misleading robocalls, emails and text messages. The pitches typically are made even more convincing by including personal information gleaned from social media, data breaches and other Internet sources. The details can incorporate information about where potential victims live, who they know, their occupations,.