Welcome to the age of paranoia as deepfakes and scams abound

Nicole Yelland, a nonprofit public relations professional, takes extensive precautions to avoid scams by conducting thorough background checks and verifying identities, even testing language skills like Spanish to ensure she’s not dealing with a fake. With the rise of digital imposter scams fueled by remote work and AI tools, platforms like LinkedIn make it harder to distinguish real people from AI-generated profiles, while deepfake videos and mimicked live calls are making impersonation easier for scammers, leading to a surge in reported cases and significant financial losses.