By Ben Shanahan
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
MILLBURY — Lake Township residents packed the administration building Tuesday as police officers Ron Craig and Randy Sehl talked bout the new dangers of artificial intelligence scams.
These new artificial intelligence threats over the phone are the worst thing he has ever seen as a police officer, Craig said.
That led to many gasps from the audience.
“I will tell you in my 49 years of doing this — I started in 1974 — this artificial intelligence is the scariest thing I have ever seen,” Craig said. “I saw on the news a few weeks ago in a survey that 10% of people think artificial intelligence will take over the world within 10 years. I am not saying I believe that, but after intensive research, I would not be surprised.”
Craig also made the audience aware that senior citizens were the biggest threat to being scammed by these hackers.
“Most of these scams are targeted at seniors because they are more vulnerable due to their being more trusting and generally the ones with the most money,” Craig said. “The software is inexpensive that they use, and like most scams, if they can trick one out of every 100 people they attempt to breach, the hackers are still getting away with thousands of dollars.”
The heightened concern over this issue in the Northwest Ohio area came from a data breach earlier this month at the Toledo Medical Center. Craig asked who had heard about the breach, and every single hand in the hall rose.
“Now let me tell you, folks, that is a gold mine from scammers because it is not just your information; if you have a power of attorney, their name, phone number and Social Security number have all been put out into the public.” Craig said.
After answering questions and listing other ways hackers steal information, Craig gave the floor to Sehl, who explained the dangers of social media hackers.
“I know not everyone here is on social media, but many are, and everyone has at least one family member on it,” Sehl said. “There is a huge scam on Facebook going around where you will get a message from someone you know who has been hacked. They cannot get into their Facebook, and you need to get them a code to get back into their Facebook. Once you give them that code, the scammer now has full control of your Facebook, and it is almost impossible to get it back.”
Craig left the audience with an important tip to avoid phone call scammers.
“Try to get on the phone with them and call them back to confirm it is them,” he said. “Then say you are not comfortable giving this information over the phone and meet in person so you will not get hacked.”
