Wynton Hall, who is the social media director at Breitbart News and an author of a recently successful book, warns that AI is making sophisticated fraud much easier. His book, code red, highlights how advanced technology has lowered the barriers for creating deepfake fraud.
“What we’re seeing is that AI is driving the cost of deception closer to zero,” Hall mentioned during an interview on Newsmax. He added that this shift allows criminals to produce convincing fake IDs in merely an hour.
Even Jason Rebholz, a cybersecurity expert focused on AI threats, nearly fell victim to this kind of AI deception, according to Newsmax. Rebholz recounted a moment from earlier this year when he was interviewing candidates and noticed something was off.
“What struck me was how soft and blurry the facial features appeared around the edges. I thought, ‘This might be a deepfake,'” he explained.
After consulting a friend who specializes in deepfake detection, he learned that the applicant he had been interviewing was actually not real.
A Missouri mother also shared a chilling experience from last summer when she received a phone call from someone posing as her daughter, claiming she had been kidnapped and needed ransom for her release.
“That sounded exactly like my child; I know her voice better than anyone,” the mother recalled, expressing her distress during the conversation with the scammer.
It turned out the voice was, in fact, artificially generated, and she only realized this after her daughter reached out to her directly.
Hall noted that psychological manipulation has become a hallmark of modern AI fraud. Scammers now examine social media profiles to craft intricate profiles about their victims and use AI to mimic loved ones so skillfully that it becomes challenging to trust one’s instincts.
“These tools are being made more accessible and affordable, which means they can be utilized on a larger scale,” he explained further.
The FBI reports that AI-related fraud resulted in over 22,000 complaints and nearly $893 million in losses in 2025. Some of these threats may come from abroad, as they employ face-swapping technology to deceive U.S. businesses and even trick families into believing their loved ones are in peril.
For those interested in understanding how to shield themselves from AI scams and other tech-related threats, Hall’s new book offers valuable insights. Code Red: Left, Right, China, and the Race to Control AI.
