Criminals are now using ChatGPT and similar AI to craft convincing scam emails at scale, making fraud harder to spot

Since ChatGPT launched publicly in late 2022, criminals have adopted large language models (AI systems trained to write human-like text) to generate both mass spam and targeted phishing emails that impersonate trusted senders — a shift from the obviously-broken English that used to flag scams.

AI-written scams work faster and feel more authentic: attackers can now personalize malicious emails to match a recipient's name, company, and communication style in seconds, rather than using generic templates that people learned to ignore.

For office workers and business email users, this means scammers' success rate is climbing — a convincing email asking you to reset your password or approve a wire transfer is now far more likely to land in your inbox, making vigilance and multi-factor authentication your only reliable defenses.