AI making life easier for business email compromise scammers, cybersecurity experts warn [Video]

Three days before closing on his Chicago-area condo in September, Cullen Brown received an email detailing down payment wiring directions from the title company working with the seller, one of the final steps before he could achieve his dream of first-time homeownership.

But the instructions hadn’t actually come from the title company. Brown had wired nearly $60,000 ($A94,000), just about the entirety of his savings, to the wrong place.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: How to make yourself scam-aware.

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He’d been scammed.

Without realising it, Brown had fallen victim to a real estate con that has grown more common as communication for business transactions increasingly move online.

The FBI calls this sophisticated scam “business email compromise,” or BEC. It occurs when a criminal hacks into the email account of a legitimate business or individual to impersonate them, then tricks another person into sending money or sensitive information.

Experts warn that new technologies such as artificial intelligence and faster payment products …