In Moonlock Lab’s holiday-scam roundup, Protegrity Senior Product Security Architect Clyde Williamson warns that the social-engineering economy is booming. With AI enabling convincing voice clones, polished emails, and short-lived fake stores, traditional “spot the typo” guidance is no longer enough. His core guidance: slow down—urgency is the weak link scams depend on.
What’s New
- Losses are rising: U.S. consumers reported $12.5B in scam losses, up 25% year over year.
- AI scales deception: Personalized phishing, deepfake voices, and ephemeral “deal” sites make scams indistinguishable from the real thing at speed.
- Seasonal hooks: Expect “tariff rebate” and “inflation adjustment” refund ploys alongside fake delivery notices, charity asks, and gift-card scams.
Why It Matters
AI has removed the obvious tells, shifting effective defense from proofreading to context checks and pace control. Training must emphasize verification over reflex—does the request make sense, through the right channel, at the right time?
Clyde’s Highlights
- Scams rely on urgency: “They fall apart if we slow down.”
- Context over clicks: Avoid acting from unsolicited links; go direct to the source to confirm.
Note: This post summarizes a third-party article for convenience. Please refer to the original source for full context.tes, quantum–AI advances (e.g., self-verifying randomness) and agentic guardrails will anchor security in physics and continuous verification.