Jeffrey M Allen, ABA Journal; What Deepfake Scams Teach Us About AI and Fraud
"How Can Lawyers Help? Start with Awareness
Whether you work in elder law, family law, estate planning, or general civil practice, you’ve probably encountered lonely, grieving, or emotionally raw clients. The very people scammers like to target.
Attorneys can protect clients (and themselves) by:
- Spotting the red flags. Does the story sound dramatic, urgent, or secretive? That’s a clue.
- Verifying everything. Real celebrities don’t DM strangers asking for cash. If a story seems off, it probably is.
- Watching for payment via crypto or wire transfer. Once it’s gone, it’s almost impossible to recover.
- Encouraging clients to slow down. Scammers rely on urgency. A second opinion can stop a scam from progressing.
What Should Lawmakers Do?
There’s no silver bullet here, but the legal system should adapt.
- Modernize fraud and impersonation laws to include AI-generated deepfakes and synthetic media explicitly.
- Increase platform accountability. Social media and messaging platforms should be required to detect and remove known scams more quickly.
- Encourage cross-border enforcement agreements to track international fraud rings more efficiently."
