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AI scammers use obituaries to target widows and demand $7,000
A caller reportedly told a widow her late husband evaded taxes and demanded payment to protect her inheritance, while TrueCaller warns AI speeds up scam scripts and deepfake content.
AI scammers are reportedly using artificial intelligence to scan public obituaries to identify and target older victims, according to USA Today, as cited in coverage by Yahoo Finance.
In one case described by TrueCaller spokesperson Clayton LiaBraaten, fraudsters allegedly told a widowed customer her late husband had evaded taxes and that she needed to pay $7,000 to preserve what remained of her inheritance, Yahoo Finance reported.
LiaBraaten said the scam worked by exploiting vulnerabilities found in obituaries, including names, relatives, employers, and hometown details, to build more convincing fraud campaigns.
He also warned that AI can help scammers move faster, by generating scam scripts and producing deepfake images, voice messages, and videos, and by gathering personally identifiable information for use in future outreach.
According to the FBI, Americans age 60-plus reported $7.7 billion in internet or cyber-enabled crime losses in 2025, up 59% from 2024, which the coverage said equates to an average of $38,500 lost per elderly scam case.