AMNA NAWAZ: Well, if it feels like it's getting harder and harder to avoid being scammed, that's because it is.

As our dependence on technology grows, so do scammers' efforts to take advantage of us.

It can be through your cell phone, your laptop, misleading Web sites, and now, in the age of A.I., impersonations that can sound very real.

Seniors are often the target.

Paul Solman reports on the problem and what you can do to protect yourself.

PAUL SOLMAN: It came clear out of the blue.

JANE DEAN, Scam Victim: My scam started in the evening with a phone call from Amazon.

Someone is trying to purchase a MacBook and they're using your name, your account number, and also your bank account number.

PAUL SOLMAN: Was 72-year-old Jane Dean suspicious?

JANE DEAN: My normal rational, logical mind was subsumed by the anxiety and the panic that I was feeling.

PAUL SOLMAN: So she followed the instructions.

JANE DEAN: They transferred me to their fraud department and they said, oh, OK, well, then we need to transfer you to the Social Security Administration.

PAUL SOLMAN: That last guy was the scammer, to whom she actually sent $26,000, was about to send another 30 when her local bank manager smelled a rat, searched the address online and showed it to her.

JANE DEAN: It's an empty house at a new homes construction site and he said, you are being scammed.

PAUL SOLMAN: So was Dean unusually unwarned, unarmed?

JANE DEAN: I have always protected myself and paid attention to red flags.

And when I was on the phone with the scammers, my red flags did not work.

PAUL SOLMAN: She'd simply panicked, like so many have.

Fraudsters bilked Americans out of an estimated $200 billion in 2024, and A.I.

may make that a lowball number.

KATHY STOKES, AARP: I think of it as the Industrial Revolution for fraud criminals.

PAUL SOLMAN: Kathy Stokes runs fraud protection at AARP.

KATHY STOKES: It just ups their game so much.

They can scale.

They can perfect.

And when we can't tell fact from fiction, it's a pretty bad place to be in.

PAUL SOLMAN: AARP focuses on seniors, of course, more likely than most to be gulled into what it calls going under the ether, but old folks at home aren't the only ones.

KATHY STOKES: It doesn't just happen to older people because they have some cognitive decline, maybe they're not tech-savvy.

If that was the case, we wouldn't have seen year in and year out more younger adults reporting fraud losses than older adults.

PAUL SOLMAN: And, hey, who hasn't been barraged with scam calls, scam texts?

I get at least a dozen a week.

SCAM CALL: Our records indicate you have been earmarked for a reserved offer for a personal loan in the range of $50,000.

KATHY STOKES: If your number was out there for a scammer to call you, it's out there on other lists.

Scary thing is, even if you pick up the phone because you're like, I know it's a scammer, so I'm just going to waste their time, the longer you're on the phone with them, the hotter your phone number is, and so they can get more money when they sell it.

PAUL SOLMAN: So we bought a cheapo burner phone to check out the daily loan offer.

SCAM CALL: The team that would handle that is currently unavailable to assist at the moment.

PAUL SOLMAN: And again and again.

SCAM CALL: All of our agents are currently unavailable to take your call.

PAUL SOLMAN: Yes, they weren't taking calls from numbers not on their target list.

And then there's this daily plague.

SCAM CALL: My name is Lilliana Castillo with the Special Resolution Unit.

I have been checking through some files that got flagged before the 2026 IRS deadline and yours is still showing a few unresolved items.

PAUL SOLMAN: These folks did pick up the burner callback.

Lilliana wasn't there.

SCAM CALL: The reason of the call is, we're checking an individual if they have an federal IRS tax debt.

PAUL SOLMAN: You don't know if I owe any money to the IRS?

You're just asking me if I owe?

SCAM CALL: Yes.

PAUL SOLMAN: So it seems a phishing mission for folks who actually owe taxes.

I reset my cell phone, not in my contacts, straight to voice-mail.

KATHY STOKES: I think that it's really good if you have a message instead of answering it.

But don't think that that's the end of it.

PAUL SOLMAN: Nope, because some still ring.

And now I'm getting e-mail invites supposedly from folks I know.

Advice, don't open.

AENEA VANNONI, Red-Button: The complexity of attacks has increased significantly with A.I.

PAUL SOLMAN: Cybersecurity pro Aenea Vannoni.

AENEA VANNONI: Before, it was a one-to-one ratio, one person for one scam.

Now it is one person for hundreds, if not thousands of scams.

PAUL SOLMAN: So what's a target supposed to do?

Like the joke about guys chased by a bear, don't outrun it, just those running with you.

Vannoni uses a different analogy.

AENEA VANNONI: They're not trying to attack the Pentagon.

They're walking down the street and seeing which bike doesn't have a lock on it.

And you need to be someone who has that lock on it.

PAUL SOLMAN: Vannoni does have three suggestions, though.

One, create a verbal family password.

AENEA VANNONI: Finding keywords that you share with those that you trust, if you're on a call with someone and you think that there's something suspicious going on, you can drop it in conversation in a way that doesn't arouse suspicion.

And then, if they don't respond likewise or they don't uphold their end of that code, then you know that you're being scammed.

PAUL SOLMAN: Two, for anything suspect: AENEA VANNONI: You're getting a call from a friend or even someone at your local bank, you hang up, you call them back on their legitimate number, and you make sure that what you were hearing is the truth.

PAUL SOLMAN: Like this call, supposedly from me, to a fictional grandchild.

FAKE SCAM CALL CREATED BY AENEA VANNONI: Hey, Jackie.

Sorry.

It's your grandmother.

She's just been hit by a car, and we've got to go to the hospital.

PAUL SOLMAN: Vannoni created it in 10 minutes for free from my voice online.

FAKE SCAM CALL CREATED BY AENEA VANNONI: Jackie, I need you to send me your bank details.

Oh, crap, I have to go.

Love you.

PAUL SOLMAN: Think of what he could have done with more time and a little money.

OK, protection three, your software.

AENEA VANNONI: Make sure everything is updated.

I'm not going to come here and say that you should have state-of-the-art cybersecurity software, but the bare minimum to significantly decrease the likelihood that you will be attacked is update everything when it needs to be updated.

KAREN COURINGTON, Google: We take scams really seriously, and we know that bad actors are getting more targeted in their approach.

PAUL SOLMAN: Karen Courington runs Consumer trust and safety at Google.

KAREN COURINGTON: That's why we take that detection and we try to improve with our A.I.-powered defenses.

Gmail is using A.I.-powered defenses to detect and block 99.9 percent of spam, phishing and malware e-mails before they ever reach people.

PAUL SOLMAN: Google has partnered with AARP, other tech companies, banks and governments to share data and scam trends to frustrate the fraudsters.

It is a kind of eternal cat-and-mouse game, right?

KAREN COURINGTON: As tactics evolve, as we see new adversarial tactics, we are always trying to stay ahead of the scammers.

PAUL SOLMAN: Do you or people at Google ever have any misgivings about promoting, developing A.I., which has the side effect of helping scammers figure out how to scam?

KAREN COURINGTON: With any new technology, we know that A.I.

can be used for good and important breakthroughs like in health care and medicine, as well as for bad, like in more and different complex scams.

Our mission is to use our technology to stay one step ahead and keep the Internet safe for everyone.

PAUL SOLMAN: But the mission of the scam squad, stay one step ahead of the thwarters with ever more tools at their disposal.

Nonetheless, says AARP's Kathy Stokes: KATHY STOKES: I think that one of the most hopeful things right now is that this issue is getting so much more attention than it ever has.

PAUL SOLMAN: Thanks to folks like Jane Dean.

JANE DEAN: I look around the room and I say, someone in this room right now is either being scammed or has been scammed in the past, but is too ashamed to share with anyone what has happened to them.

And you can't go through this alone.

You have got to talk to someone.

PAUL SOLMAN: And think before you act.

So she ends her talk with a jolt meant to scare the audience straight.

JANE DEAN: Stop!

PAUL SOLMAN: Sound counsel, no matter what scams the future may hold.

For the "PBS News Hour," Paul Solman.