AI Crypto Scams: Hackers Target People, Not Just Code

Artificial intelligence is changing how crypto scams operate, with hackers now focusing on people rather than just code. Cybercriminals are using AI to create fake identities and impersonate investors. Here's the thing: AI is no longer a separate type of cybercrime tool. It's now embedded across many stages of fraudulent operations. Deepfakes and face-swapping software allow criminals to create convincing fake identities at scale. What's interesting is that scams linked to AI vendors involved an average of about $3.2 million per operation. That's much higher than the approximately $719,000 for scams without AI links. This suggests a correlation with higher-value scams. Cybercrime expert Prof. Triveni Singh notes that criminals use AI to build trust and influence victims. When a victim authorizes a crypto transfer after being deceived, it's hard for the system to know it was fraudulent. Binance Research shows that around two-thirds of the $621 million lost in DeFi exploits in April 2026 came from access-control failures. This means attackers are targeting people, wallets, or governance systems, not just breaking smart contract code. The bottom line: As smart contract security improves, attackers are shifting to target individuals and control mechanisms. This means crypto security now needs to protect people and infrastructure, not just code.