US Senate Aging Panel Tackles AI Scams – Herb Weiss

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer just changing how we work and communicate. It is rapidly transforming how criminals steal money from older Americans. Last week, the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging examined how AI-generated scams—from cloned audio to realistic deepfake videos—are creating an alarming new wave of fraud powered by artificial intelligence.

The afternoon hearing in room SD-562 dealt with AI-driven scams and financial exploitation. Since AI was introduced, the world of scams has changed significantly because criminals can now produce highly convincing deepfake videos and imitate voices with very little effort or technical knowledge, making them even harder to detect.

Taking a Closer Look at Computer-Generated Scams

The 83-minute hearing, held on Wednesday, July 29, featured testimony from victims who experienced devastating voice-cloning and deepfake fraud, medical professionals whose identities were weaponized, and experts from banking, cybersecurity, and consumer protection sectors who offered suggestions on combating it.

Scams have advanced far beyond annoying phone calls and deceiving emails,” says Chairman Rick Scott (R-FL) in his opening remarks.  “AI can also be used to clone someone’s voice, a terrifying development that has been used in heartbreaking and evil ways to impersonate a loved one and deceive their family,” he says.

The Florida senator cautions that scams, fraud, and financial exploitation are now the main problem confronting seniors across the country. “With the development of AI, scammers have obtained new tools for carrying out their criminal activities, and we need to adjust our response to these emerging threats,” he stated.

Like Scott, Ranking Member Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) expressed concern about the use of AI in scamming older adults.  “By making it easier for bad actors to clone voices, fabricate images, and deceive targets, AI has facilitated an alarming rise in financial scams that rob our seniors of their hard-earned savings and personal information,” she said.

To combat the growing threat of technology-assisted fraud and scams, Senators Smith and Gillibrand called for strengthening the federal government’s ability to crack down on scammers and for Congress to pass legislation to promote the responsible development of AI.

 Personal Stories, Calls on Congress to Tackle Issue

Dr. David Amron, the founder and medical director of the Roxbury Institute in Los Angeles, California, and founder and chair of the Lipedema, told lawmakers how he discovered that scammers in the summer of 2025 had taken real footage from his YouTube channel and combined it with digitally fabricated likenesses and the voice of a colleague as well as AI generated celebrity images and stolen media logos, to create a polished advertisement that appeared to be entirely legitimate.

Dr. Amron, who has treated patients with lipedema for more than three decades, testified that his office began receiving calls from people who watched a convincing video showing him endorsing a so-called “miracle” lipedema cream. Several had already purchased the product before realizing it was fraudulent.

Even after an 11-day battle with Meta, a Today Show investigation ultimately led to the removal of the fraudulent video. Dr. Amron’s frustration was that it kept resurfacing, underscoring how persistent and difficult it is to remove AI-enabled fraud schemes.

“The consequences extend far beyond financial loss,” remarked Dr. Amron, noting that patients may delay getting needed medical care to treat a progressive disease (like lipedema), placing their trust in unproven products and fraudulent services.

During the hearing, Dr. Amron urged lawmakers to strengthen protections against computer-generated impersonations, improve accountability for those who create and distribute them, and ensure laws keep pace with AI technology.  He argued that pressure must be placed on platforms that host fraudulent content, stating they “have to have consequences.”

While Dr. Amron described how criminals easily use technology-assisted fraud to exploit public trust in medical professionals, the next witness described how voice cloning took a devastating emotional toll on her family.

Deborah Del Mastro, a Martinez, California resident, recounted a phone call she received last May during breakfast.  This cloned call of her daughter crying and apologizing, from an unrecognized phone number, began a five-and-a-half-hour ordeal.

“I am usually very, very calm and collected in the face of crisis,” Mastro  told the Senators, noting that she is always the person who “runs to the fire, now away from it.” She was totally convinced that she heard her daughter’s voice.

The veteran, living on a Social Security check and performance income made from acting and singing, with Mastro and her husband pulling a total of $ 5,400 cash from four separate transactions from MoneyGram and Western Union to send to Mexico.

Local police told Mastro that the “ransom” funds are unrecoverable.  A detective told her that he “sees these by the hundreds.”

Education is key to protecting people from AI scams, asserts Mastro, telling the Senate panel that there is an absence of publicly available resources on how to protect yourself from AI-driven scams as opposed to the abundance of resources on how to use the emerging technology.

Financial institutions are also witnessing the rapid evolution of AI-driven scams.  Paul Benda, the Executive Vice President for Risk, Fraud, and Cybersecurity of the American Bankers Association (ABA), describes how criminals are using AI to expand the scale and sophistication of traditional scams.

Benda, who chairs the ABA Fraud Coordination Group, reframes the new, evolving  AI-driven scams not as a story of misused technology but as an industrial one.

 “Generative AI is not replacing traditional scams. It is industrializing,” Benda asserts.

 Benda explained that criminals are now using chatbots to initiate conversations before seamlessly handing victims off to human scammers once they become engaged. A survey of 14 large banks found that bank impersonation scams rose 150% from 2024 to 2025, Banta said, illustrating this growing threat.

Benda encouraged Congress to establish a national office for scams and fraud prevention, describing it as necessary to provide clear and national leadership to attack this problem.  He also called for stronger telecom safeguards to keep criminals off calling networks and to restore trust in caller ID. He argued that if a name and number appear on caller ID, the telecom provider should be held accountable if it is accurate.

At this point, the hearing turned from personal and industry experiences to the broader cybersecurity challenges posed by this rapidly advancing technology.

Cybersecurity expert Matthew F. Ferraro, a Partner at Crowell & Moring LLP and a former official at the Department of Human Services, personally testified at this hearing, noting that his views do not represent his firm or clients.

Ferraro argued that “deepfakes can supercharge scams and cyber frauds, especially targeting senior citizens.”  According to an industry report, financial losses from deepfake-enabled fraud exceeded $200 million in the first quarter of 2025.

Citing another study, Ferraro further illustrated the cost of AI-generated fraud. Consulting firm Deloitte expects that generative AI could enable fraud losses to reach $40 billion in the United States by 2027, he said.

In his testimony, Ferraro pointed out a successful national educational model to combat AI scams.  Finland has integrated media literacy and AI-media spotting training into educational programs for both young and old.

Ferraro urged lawmakers to promote AI detection tools and provenance technology that tags media as human-created or AI-generated, comparing the potential to email spam filters operating in the background.

Ferraro concluded that stronger coordination among federal and state governments, law enforcement, and the private sector is essential for policymakers to successfully attack this problem and stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated fraud operations.

Holding Big Tech Accountable

While several witnesses focused on prevention and consumer education, another argued that Congress must also hold technology companies more accountable.

“I want to be clear that the devastating deception we’re seeing is not a result of technological ineptitude for older users…but rather a crisis emboldened by the biggest tech companies we know paired with a failure to rein them in,” charges Ben Winters, Director of AI and Privacy at the Consumer Federation of America.

 “This is not an issue of personal responsibility, but something Congress is uniquely positioned to address,” says Winters.

Winters urged Congress to reject any legislative proposals that would prohibit states from regulating technology or limit tech company liability – characterizing such proposals as being “pushed by tech companies right now.”

Winters also recommended passing comprehensive data privacy laws with data minimization requirements and bans on the sale of sensitive data – specifically citing the practice of selling lists of people battling Alzheimer’s for targeting purposes as something that must be prohibited.

Winters supported the other witnesses’ call for sustained oversight of enforcement agencies to ensure that the federal government remains totally focused on upstream prevention of scams – “choking out the scam upstream, not just chasing individual scammers after the fact.”

The hearing also underscored that no family, not even a U.S. Senator’s family, is immune from these increasingly convincing scams.

Senate Aging Committee Member, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) disclosed that his mother-in-law was scammed by a voice clone impersonating his granddaughter, sending $10,000 to someone claiming to be stranded in Europe.

Report Sheds Light on AI-Driven Scams, Impact

At this hearing, Chairman Scott (R-FL) and Ranking Member Gillibrand released a joint report: Artificial Intelligence & Older Americans: Confronting New Threats, Unlocking New Opportunities. The document details both the potential benefits of AI and the unique financial risks it poses to older Americans.

The 25-page report cited research, shedding light on the negatives of this emerging technology. Americans reported nearly $21 billion in cybercrime losses in 2026, with $893 million tied to AI-enabled scams across more than 22,000 complaints. More than 82 percent of phishing emails are now created with the help of AI.

Recognizing warning signs early can potentially prevent huge financial losses from AI-enabled fraud. Any unsolicited contact by phone, text, email, or social media should be treated with immediate skepticism, regardless of how professional it looks or how urgent its message appears, the report warns.

Slow down and pause before acting, the report recommends. Review your financial accounts regularly for unauthorized transactions and set up transaction alerts through your financial institution.  For protection, the report notes that the Federal Trade Commission recommends placing a free credit freeze on all three major credit card bureaus.

Any payment requests can be a red flag for a scam. Any request for payment by gift card, wire transfer, cryptocurrency, or cash is a clear indicator of fraud, the report notes.

AI-simulated threats using deepfakes and voice cloning can replicate a loved one’s voice or image to perpetrate financial fraud.  The report suggests that a family code word or verbal safe phrase be used to verify the identity when a family member appears to be calling in.  AI voice cloning or deepfakes.

Finally, the Senate Aging Committee report stresses the importance of reporting fraud, recommending that victims contact the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline at 877-908-336.

On a positive note, older persons using AI company devices experienced a 95 percent drop in feelings of loneliness, along with substantial gains in overall well-being. This technology can also potentially reduce preventable adverse drug reactions, lower hospitalization costs, and improve the quality of life of millions of older persons managing multiple chronic conditions.

Increased efficiency through the use of AI scribes saves physicians time on administrative paperwork, increasing productivity and allowing them to spend more quality time with their older patients.

Meanwhile, AI use in clinical decision-making can improve sepsis detection, improve cancer diagnosis, and help the physician understand multiple drug interactions, all of which have a significant impact on providing care to older adults.

Finally, the report notes that AI use to reduce falls, to track vital signs, medication adherence, sleep patterns, and activity levels can help older adults age in place.

As lawmakers continue debating how best to regulate AI, one message clearly emerged repeatedly during the hearing: technology will continue evolving, but awareness remains the strongest defense. For older Americans, taking a moment to verify an unexpected phone call, text, or email may well be the simplest—and most effective—way to avoid becoming the next victim.

To watch the Senate Aging Committee AI hearing, go to https://www.aging.senate.gov/hearings/the-ai-deception-machine-deepfakes-chatbots-and-the-new-frontier-of-senior-fraud

To read the Joint Senate Aging Committee AI report, go to FINAL VERSION AI Report.

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To read more articles by Herb Weiss, go to:  https://2×8.ea2.myftpupload.com/herb-weiss/

Herb Weiss, LRI, 12, is a Pawtucket-based writer who has covered aging, healthcare, and medical issues for more than 45 years. To purchase his books, Taking Charge: Collected Stories on Aging Boldly and its two sequels, visit herbweiss.com.