Seniors across the country are falling for online scams that use AI technology to part them from their money. While states such as Wisconsin are doing their best to protect vulnerable populations, tech experts say social media platforms like Facebook play a significant role in perpetuating these AI scams.
“Whoever is behind the scam, whether it’s somebody in Vietnam or somebody in Alabama, they cannot execute that scam without Meta reviewing, approving, and collecting money from the ads they are running,” said Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project.
Wisconsin seniors reported more than $92 million in losses last year, according to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2025 internet crime report, across all types of scams. 2025 was the first year the agency tracked AI scams in particular, with the most complaints nationally for those ages 60 and older stemming from phishing or spoofing scams and cryptocurrency schemes.
Yet these scams are underreported by seniors, many of whom are embarrassed to admit they’ve been scammed, are unaware of the con, or fear losing their independence.
As national advocates work to hold Big Tech companies to account for their roles, Wisconsin agencies and politicians are working to alert seniors and help them recover.
“They should know what’s behind the tools that they’re using,” Paul said. “Companies have been opaque about that, so we try to shine the light on it, so people have the best possible information they can and actually know what they’re getting into on these platforms.”
AI makes scams harder to spot
As AI technology advances, deepfake videos featuring normal people and politicians alike are becoming more difficult to spot, even for younger internet users. Yet seniors in particular are falling for them.
“There’s just a broader, lower level of digital literacy when it comes to seniors, and I think that that is certainly contributing to the types of content that they’re susceptible to when it comes to the deepfake content,” said Paul.
When it comes to AI scams, Paul said deepfake videos are appearing as ads on Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms, directing users to fake sites.
Paul said scams designed for seniors route them to chatbots that ask questions about pertinent issues like Medicare, for example, and then inform the user that they’re eligible for a limited-time offer if they call the provided phone number. Seniors call and speak to a live human—also part of the scam—who takes their information.
“There have been several reports that seniors, in particular, are more likely to trust somebody on the phone that they think is a real person, as opposed to inputting credit card stuff online,” Paul said.
Big Tech profits off user deception
Paul said Meta is the largest platform benefiting from these AI scams. Meta has teams dedicated to reviewing ads for deepfake footage and nefarious links, but thousands of pieces of content slip through review safeguards daily. And while Meta claims it’s dedicated to removing and preventing them, Paul points out that the company generates a sizable portion of its ad revenue from these fake ads.
“Internal documents leaked from Meta employees found that 10%, or $16 billion, of all of Meta’s advertising revenue is scams, and the company is aware of that,” she said.
In an attempt to make the company’s procedures more transparent, Meta launched a publicly accessible ad library, which allows users to search for and review ads that appeared on its platforms over the past 30 days. While that’s a good step, Paul said it doesn’t stop Meta from allowing scam ads to come through or generating payment before they’re identified and removed.
“There’s a lot of things that these companies, including Meta, have policies for on paper and say they don’t allow. But time and again, whether it’s scam ads, we found hundreds of ads trafficking drugs and opioids, trafficking weapons, child sex abuse material,” Paul said.
But knowing this is happening hasn’t prevented it, and lawmakers have yet to find a solution.
“There are currently no repercussions for these companies when it comes to content that is fraud or illegal or harmful, and they’re just profiting in the process while knowing they are, you know, expanding these harms,” Paul added.
At the federal level, representatives introduced the SCAM Act in February, aiming to increase penalties for social media platforms that fail to police scam ads. It has not yet been voted on. Other laws have focused on strengthening federal agencies’ abilities to investigate scams and make victims whole, yet Big Tech companies continue to benefit. The Stop Scams Against Seniors Act was also introduced in Congress last year to create an elder scams task force.
What Wisconsin is doing to protect seniors
In Wisconsin, lawmakers have introduced bills to increase penalties for those engaging in deepfake content creation. Democratic Sen. Sarah Keyeski introduced a bill in January to add penalties for those using deepfakes in scams. Gov. Tony Evers has also signed a few bills into law over the years, targeting the use of AI in harassing videos, videos containing child sexual abuse material, and political advertisements. He’s also criticized national laws preventing states from regulating AI. But prosecuting these scams is difficult, and criminal jurisdiction becomes muddy with online perpetrators.
In the meantime, organizations such as the Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources (GWAAR) focus on helping seniors spot these AI scams and recover once they’ve been targeted.
Ingrid Kundinger oversees the Senior Medicare Patrol for the state. The program helps protect Wisconsinites from Medicare fraud, a problem that costs the system $60 billion annually. The scams Kundinger hears about most often happen either by phone or behind the scenes, when data breaches leak identifying numbers.
“If you share your Medicare number and you gave it to them, that’s kind of like giving them a blank check,” Kundinger said.
Until recently, Medicare recipients used their Social Security numbers to receive benefits. But in an effort to curb identity theft, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services changed the identifier to an alphanumeric number in 2018. Still, when you provide your number to a scammer unwittingly, they can use it to request unnecessary medical supplies on the patient’s behalf. The supplies are often shipped to the recipient, and the scammer submits a claim to Medicare for those supplies, and Medicare then reimburses the scammer.
The scam is made more complicated when real doctors participate in kickback schemes by signing off on fraudulent prescriptions. One Wisconsin doctor made national headlines in 2021 when he was sentenced to 54 months in prison for his part in a $13 million Medicare scam.
Kundingier said many seniors aren’t aware of the scams until they review their Medicare summary notices.
“In the case of that doctor, we collected many, many, many Medicare summary notices from people all across the state of Wisconsin that were like, ‘I don’t know who this doctor is, and I didn’t need this back brace,’ or ‘I never talked to my doctor about this ankle brace, what’s going on?’” she said.
AI makes these scams more sophisticated and believable, leaving seniors at risk of being duped.
“Unfortunately for them, they lived in a world where, when they answered the phone and someone said, ‘I am so and so from such and such,’ they really were,” Kundinger said.
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