AI Goes Phishing

Email Scams in the Age of Generative AI

April 27, 2026

In the last month or so, Blinn has seen an increase of phishing emails (usually disguised as offering assistance for essays or homework) that ask the user to call a phone number or connect via WhatsApp. These may be particularly harmful not only because of an attempt at personal information theft, but also AI only needs a couple of seconds of audio to mimic voice tone and patterns which bad actors could use for identity theft purposes.

Overall, this semester has seen an increase in tailored AI scams of all sorts aimed at Blinn’s and other email accounts. These often include personalized messages, sometimes based on hobbies, groups or professions recipients are involved in, obtained by AI scraping documents on the web that are publicly available. Other scams are purporting to be from a variety of companies recipients might do business with, indicating that the recipient has a “gift” waiting in their account.

As always with phishing attacks, or any email even from trusted companies, do not click on the links in the email. If it is a company you regularly do business with, login through the web or your installed app as usual. Don’t click on the links in the mail.

Finally note that many scams originate with Gmail addresses. If you receive something unexpected from a Gmail account, treat it with extra caution. Also, this time of year remember that the IRS does not use email. They will use certified postal mail if they need to communicate with you.