Catenaa, Friday, May 23, 2025- A panel of experts at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) annual conference sounded the alarm on the rising threat of artificial intelligence-powered cryptocurrency scams, which are increasingly targeting retail investors across age groups.
At the 2025 FINRA Annual Conference, experts from regulatory bodies and financial firms said AI is enabling scammers to mimic institutions with alarming accuracy.
Deepfake videos, fake trading platforms, and generative phishing schemes have made investment fraud more sophisticated and harder to detect.
Christine Kieffer, senior director at FINRA, cited Federal Trade Commission data showing that investment fraud complaints topped $5.7 billion in 2024. She noted cryptocurrency schemes ranked among the top three fraud types across all age groups.
Tara Ambrose of the Minnesota Department of Commerce described tech support scams that evolve into elaborate impersonation hoaxes, often concluding with victims coerced into using Bitcoin ATMs. Victims are manipulated into secrecy by fake claims that their identities are tied to criminal investigations.
Bismarck Prado of Commonwealth Financial Network said these scams increasingly involve victims being kept on the phone and directed to act urgently under threat of legal action. Brooks Brown, a FINRA senior director, emphasized that AI has removed the telltale signs of earlier scams — like typos and poor grammar — making fraud harder to spot.
Panelists called for a coordinated response across industries. From telecom companies to financial advisers, fraud prevention now requires real-time collaboration.
Brown urged firms to use FINRA Rule 2165 to flag suspicious transactions and recommended cross-departmental awareness.
As crypto adoption grows, experts warned that scammers are evolving faster than traditional safeguards can adapt.
