AI Financial Scams Have Already Reached 4 in 10 U.S. Consumers, New Survey Finds

Introduction

A call from your bank used to be something you would act on. Now, people question whether it’s even real. U.S consumers have started treating their own banks’ calls, texts, and fraud alerts as messages to verify rather than believe outright, and the survey data shows how far trust has fallen.

In a survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers conducted by Credit One Bank, nearly 68% said they received at least one suspicious financial contact in the past 12 months, including fraud-alert texts, phishing emails, and calls from someone claiming to be their bank. Generative AI tools have made these scams cheaper to produce, harder to spot, and for many people, so common that it’s become routine.

The result is reduced trust in the channels banks use to reach their own customers. Nearly half of the respondents now say they would not believe a realistic fraud warning from their bank until they called the bank back themselves. These scams don’t just cost nearly a billion dollars, but they also change banking behaviors that have been set in place for years. 

Key Findings

• Nearly 42% of U.S. consumers report that they’ve encountered an AI scam. These respondents either caught a scam in time, lost money to one, received a suspicious communication that they still worry about, or personally know a victim.

• Almost 68% received at least one suspicious financial contact in the past 12 months.

• 47% would not trust a realistic bank fraud warning until they contacted their bank directly, using a number they knew was real.

• More than 50% have stopped answering calls from numbers they don’t recognize, while close to 84% have changed at least one financial behavior because of AI scam concerns.

• Almost 24% named AI-cloned bank phone calls as the scam type they fear most, making it the single largest concern. Among households earning under $25K, that figure rose to nearly 36%.

• Close to 35% of Gen Z respondents say they would catch an AI scam immediately — the highest confidence of any generation — while nearly 52% of Gen Z report experiencing a direct AI scam encounter.

• Women were more than three times as likely as men to say they were not confident at all in spotting an AI scam: 15% versus less than 5%.

AI Financial Fraud Is Already Part of Daily Life

A combined 42% of respondents reported some direct encounter with an AI-powered financial scam. That breaks down into specific categories:

• Nearly 7% personally lost money.

• More than 14% were targeted, but caught it in time.

• Over 11% know someone who was victimized.

• Almost 10% received a suspicious communication and are still worried about being a target. 

Exposure is broad and constant.

In the past year:

• Just over a third of respondents received a fraud alert text with a link to click. 

• Nearly a third got a phishing email that looked like it came from a financial institution they use. 

• 2 in 10 took a call from someone claiming to be their bank. (Respondents could report more than one type of contact.) 

In total, almost 68% of respondents were reached by at least one of these contact attempt types. The everyday texture of digital life now includes a steady stream of fraud attempts, many of them polished enough to make people stop and look twice.

That lived reality matches what local financial institutions are seeing. In June 2026, Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union warned San Antonio-area consumers about a rise in AI-powered voice-cloning phone scams, the same attack vector survey respondents said they fear most.

U.S. Consumers Stopped Trusting the Channel Itself, Not Banks

When asked what would make them believe that a fraud-related communication attempt legitimately came from their bank, 47% of respondents said that nothing would. They would not trust any communication until they contacted their bank directly using a number they knew was real. That skepticism climbs sharply with age, reaching nearly 72% among baby boomers and more than 53% among Gen X.

This reflects a country that has changed how it communicates. Half of U.S. consumers have stopped answering calls from numbers they do not recognize, a habit that was once a generational quirk and is now mainstream; among baby boomers it reaches nearly 68%. 

Beyond ignoring calls:

• Over one third now check their bank accounts more frequently.

• Almost 3 in 10 second-guess nearly every financial text or call.

• Nearly a quarter have added security measures like two-factor authentication.

Just over 16% say nothing about their behavior has changed, which means almost 84% reported at least one of these changes, since respondents could select more than one.

Cloned Voices Are the Top Fear, Especially in Lower-Income Households

When asked about which AI scam concerns them the most, U.S. consumers pointed to the kind that mimics a human being.

Fake phone calls or voice messages cloned to sound like their bank ranked first at nearly 24%, narrowly ahead of scam texts designed to look like real fraud alerts at almost 22%. 

The fear of voice cloning was sharpest in the lowest income bracket: nearly 36% of households earning less than $25K named cloned calls as their top concern, which is the highest of any income group. 

Part of what makes voice cloning frightening is how the scam is structured. It works through urgency and authority, and it asks nothing of the target except to listen and react in the moment.

There’s no link to scrutinize and no message to reread. And a synthetic voice doesn’t need to fool everyone. It just needs to fool someone at the exact moment they can’t afford to be wrong.

The Confidence Paradox: The Most Certain Are Not the Most Secure

Confidence in spotting AI scams runs in almost the opposite direction of actual exposure.

Gen Z reported the highest confidence of any generation: almost 35% said they would catch an AI scam immediately, compared with less than 24% of millennials, 18% of Gen X, and 11% of baby boomers. 

Yet nearly 52% of Gen Z also reported a direct AI scam encounter, and almost 10% said they personally lost money, which is the highest personal-loss rate of any generation. Gen Z was also the least likely to verify before trusting: less than 31% said they would contact their bank first, while more than 22% said a familiar-looking number or email would be enough to convince them.

Part of this gap is the numbers game. Younger generations typically have more online accounts (including app-based banking) which generally leads to more fraud attempts, regardless of how skilled people are at spotting them. 

Being proficient in technology could be easily mistaken as immunity. But the data says the people most sure of themselves are often the ones who let their guard down.

Women Doubt Their Scam-Spotting Skills More Than Men, Yet Catch Them Just as Often

Confidence in spotting AI scams splits sharply along gender lines, and the split doesn’t match what actually happens.

Women were more than three times as likely as men to say they weren’t confident at all in their ability to spot an AI financial scam in real time: 15% versus less than 5%. Men were also more likely to claim the opposite, with more than 25% saying they would catch a scam immediately, compared with 19% of women.

Yet that gap is about how people feel, not how safe they are. Women and men reported catching a scam attempt in real time at similar rates, so the group voicing the least confidence wasn’t the group getting fooled more often. 

For a bank, that’s a useful distinction. The customers who say they’re worried about AI scams are not necessarily the ones most likely to fall for one, and fraud awareness outreach could impact more people when it does not assume the two groups are the same.

U.S. Consumers Want Their Banks to Step Forward, Not Back

The clearest signal in the data is what people want their banks to actually do.

Asked what would make them feel most protected:

• More than 48% chose real-time fraud alerts the moment suspicious activity is detected. 

• Over 38% said stronger identity verification before transactions are approved.

• More than 33% opted for a dedicated fraud hotline.

• Nearly 30% wanted plain-language guidance on spotting AI scams.

• Almost 29% asked for regular updates on new scam tactics. 

The responses show that consumers want a partner in defending against fraud and scams.

Trust in banks is real but not unconditional. A majority, nearly 58%, said they mostly or completely trust their bank or credit card company to protect them from AI fraud, while the remaining 42% were more guarded, trusting them only somewhat or not at all. 

Skepticism was highest among baby boomers, with almost 14% saying they don’t trust their bank at all to protect them from AI-powered fraud. The takeaway for financial institutions is direct: consumers can trust you, as long as you offer protection and tools that work.

That demand is arriving as federal authorities sound the same alarm. The FBI’s Seattle Field Office has described AI components as a rapidly developing trend in financial scams, and the agency’s  2025 Internet Crime Report logged 22,364 complaints tagged as AI-related, with reported losses of more than $893 million.

Summary

The numbers describe a country adjusting rather than panicking. U.S. consumers have raised the bar for proof, growing more deliberate about which messages they believe and how much they verify before acting. A familiar name or voice isn’t enough anymore.

Even though some are confident in their ability to spot a scam, the most confident group is also the most at risk of being targeted. Meanwhile, those with the least financial cushion are the most afraid of cloned-voice attacks. And it seems that simply being familiar with technology doesn’t equate to protection.

An encouraging sign is that people are asking for specific things from their banks: alerts the moment something looks wrong, stronger verification before money moves, and clear guidance on what to watch for. Consumers have been clear about what they’d like to see in the face of these new technologies.

Find the full survey and responses here.

Methodology

To understand how U.S. consumers approach AI-powered financial fraud, we surveyed 1,000 adults across the country. Participants answered questions about their personal experiences with AI scams, their confidence in spotting them, the suspicious financial contacts they had received in the past year, how their behavior has changed, and what they want from their banks. Responses were analyzed by demographic groups, including age, gender, household income, and education, to identify trends and disparities.

Age generational labels: Gen Z (18–29), millennials (30–45), Gen X (46–61), baby boomers (62+). Income and education demographics were condensed to standardized reporting bands, and income and education figures exclude respondents who preferred not to answer from their column bases. Percentages reflect column percentages within each demographic group. Several questions allowed respondents to select more than one answer; for those questions, shares are reported as a percentage of all respondents and do not sum to 100%.

National fraud figures are drawn from the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center’s 2025 Annual Report on Internet Crime.

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