McAfee is launching a scam detector to stop scams before they happen

Fraud is everywhere. McAfeeThe new scam detector is to stop scams by voice, email, and video so you won’t be fooled.

McAfee today it was announced on Cost of CES 2025 introduction of McAfee Scam Detector – the most comprehensive protection against voice, email, and video fraud. Today’s scams are smarter, sneakier, and more sophisticated than ever – and they’re everywhere. One in three Americans admit to having fallen victim to a text, email, or video scam in the past 12 months.

From fake emails and suspicious documents to immersive videos that look eerily real, fraudsters use clever techniques to steal people’s money and personal information. McAfee is helping consumers take back control with the AI-powered McAfee Scam Detector to stop scammers.

McAfee is using AI to try to stop fraud before it happens by detecting fraud or fraud. Fraudsters have a number of things working for them, said Steve Grobman, CTO of McAfee, in an interview with GamesBeat.

One is that there are many forms of private communication where there is no moderator, such as private messages or direct messages. They may communicate with the victim, you know, accidentally. The other component is real-time, and that’s one of the reasons McAfee has built its own deep recorder for every video on the Internet, Grobman said.

Starting this spring, McAfee Scam Detector will be included at no additional cost to McAfee customers. This must-have uses the latest AI technology to quickly analyze and display threat messages in real time. To ‘Hello, how are you?’ a word from a stranger? It is one of the most popular scams of 2024.

I received a scam email about using a document signing service, with the words “terminating NDA” on it. I almost fell for that one, because of the urgency with which I agreed. (I was not fired).

An urgent email about a failed delivery? Probably fake. And no, Elon Musk does not have a special opportunity to make money for you. McAfee makes it easy to tell real from fake in seconds and provides you with the best advice and technology to prevent fraud in your life.

“I think the smartest thing is to customize it,” Grobman said. “One of the things we’ve seen is job scams, where people have advertised their job search, and the scam takes the form of taking your interview to another level, but it requires a background check and we want the applicant to pay for it.”

He added that the fraud analysis is working in real time, making it possible to catch it at the right time.

History

A year ago, Grobman talked to me about focusing on fraud protection in three areas: fraud that comes through email, fraud that comes through text, and then fraud that users encounter, often, in other forms of media like video. .

In order to overcome this, the company developed advanced AI models to protect consumers in all three areas and began to ship them at the end of 2024. One of them was an in-depth analysis to help consumers determine whether AI-generated videos are AI-generated versus real.

The company also ran a technical review of our other systems, namely email and text.

“And now that we’re moving into 2025 we’re excited to move all of these technologies to the next level by making them available to more of our customers,” Grobman said. “We’re evolving our AI models to take advantage of the high-end AI PCs where the high-end AI PCs are available. So we can run our AI models on the (PC’s) NPU, and we also have the ability to run other simulation engines, either a CPU or a GPU, which it can give us more opportunities, to give more power to the user group.”

Email fraud protection will go beyond the technological foresight McAfee did in 2024 when it discovered Microsoft emails. Now it can support Gmail and other products.

“Delivering in 2025, we have developed advanced technology to detect fake images. So we partnered with Yahoo News in 2024 around helping to ensure that the images that came through the news pipelines, so that their editors, their quality assurance staff, could clearly identify if anything was fabricated and AI imaging technology to help provide that information.”

Protecting people in today’s Scamiverse

Every day, hackers trick people with fake emails, texts, and videos, and the results are devastating. Americans say they receive 12 phishing emails a day, lose as much as $1,000 after buying one, and spend 80 hours a year trying to figure out whether the messages they receive are real or fake, according to a McAfee study. And deep-pocketed fraud, which uses AI to create a fake video, can be even worse — some people have lost up to half a million, according to McAfee research.

It is clear that fraud has wasted people’s time, energy, and resources.

“I’ve had a lot of problems with fraudulent documents recently. I can say within the last year, it’s just been bad. Like I’ve been receiving a lot of spam emails, text messages, calls…it’s too much,” said Tina, 31, in South Carolina.

“It was a fake UPS email. I thought I was signing up to change my address and instead it charged my credit card,” said Alexandria, 46, of Georgia.

“Even though I love new technology, I’ve been in awe of AI-generated video and information ever since I saw the potential,” said Haley, 24, of New Jersey.

“Scammers are getting more sophisticated every day, using technology like artificial intelligence to make their tricks more convincing and harder to spot,” Grobman said. “They play on people’s emotions – like fear, urgency, or trust – to get what they want. That’s why we created McAfee Scam Detector. It warns you about scams before they hurt you, helps you manage your personal assets, and gives you the skills you need to succeed.” wise for the governors.”

Grobman said MAfee has seen a number of holiday scams, which it offers to consumers, during the recent holiday season.

“They offer deals that are too good to be true,” Grobman said. “Cybercriminals are in the business of extorting money from their victims, and artificial intelligence (AI) is making them more efficient and effective.”

How McAfee’s Scam Detector works

McAfee’s Scam Detector is powered by Smart AI, the same technology that makes McAfee’s award-winning online security and trust. Here’s what all-in-one security does to keep people safe from email, text, and video fraud:

Email Scam Detector: Scans your inbox for suspicious emails and places dangerous messages before you open them. It also explains why the message is dangerous, so you’ll know what to look for next time.

Text Scam Detector: Detects suspicious text messages that scammers use to trick you into giving them money or clicking malicious links, flags dangerous messages before you open them, and explains clearly why they’re dangerous. You need the McAfee mobile app for iOS or Android to do this. You can only activate this on the app.

Deepfake Detector: AI-generated videos, letting you know if something you see may not be what it seems. Whether it’s someone pretending to be your boss or a fake celebrity endorsement, McAfee makes sure you’re not fooled. Advances in deep learning continue to expand into multiple languages ​​and will soon work seamlessly wherever you are on the web – on phones, tablets, laptops, and more.
desktops.

A deep AI scanner is available for PCs and McAfee will expand this to most modern PCs, Grobman said.

Using deep sensing at the edge of the user’s PC, the system is optimized for privacy and latency.

“When we detect something in the stream, we provide that information to the user immediately and we have no latency,” he said. “We take advantage of the innovations that have happened in the hardware ecosystem and the device ecosystem.”

McAfee is also showing at CES its technology that works on Mac, Android and Chromebooks – beyond the AI-based security on Microsoft Windows.

Simple, easy security for everyone

Free for McAfee customers: Soon, McAfee Scam Detector will be included in McAfee+, McAfee Total Protection, and McAfee LiveSafe plans at no additional cost.

It works instantly: Once installed, Scam Detector starts working immediately. No need to copy, paste, or pretend a message is fake – McAfee does it for you.

It protects you wherever you are online: Whether you’re using a phone, laptop, tablet, or Chromebook, Scam Detector has you covered.

To learn more about fraud prevention and staying safe online, visit the McAfee Smart AITM Hub at mcafee.ai.