New FBI alert urges vigilance on virtual kidnapping schemes

The FBI has warned about the mounting prevalence of "virtual kidnapping" and extortion schemes, which evolves upon grandparent scams with the use of fraudulent proof-of-life photos or videos that could have been scraped from online postings of real missing person information, according to The Register.

AI tools have been leveraged by criminals to alter footage obtained from social media and other publicly available sites to facilitate the scheme, said the FBI, which noted inaccuracies in the doctored photos. "Criminal actors will sometimes purposefully send these photos using timed message features to limit the amount of time victims have to analyze the images," said the alert.

Individuals have been warned against sharing personal details with strangers while traveling, as well as urged to provide screenshots or a recording of received proof-of-life images and communicate with the supposed victim before fulfilling the criminals' ransom demands. Illicit use of AI tools has also been apparent in the North Korean IT worker scam.