Lesson 149 · 2 min
How scammers use AI to research you
Scammers can use AI to scan your public posts and build a believable story about you in minutes, so what you share publicly becomes their script.
Your public profile can show your workplace, your children's names, your recent trip, your pets and your friends. AI tools can collect and summarise all of it quickly.
With that summary, a scammer writes a message that sounds like it comes from someone who knows you: "Hi, it's Hoa from your office, about the trip to Đà Lạt..."
Leaked data from hacked shops or services adds phone numbers, addresses and order history. That is why scam calls sometimes know what you bought.
Make your profile less useful to them. Hide your friend list and phone number, limit old posts to friends, and remember that knowing a few details about you does not make a caller genuine.
Do it now
See yourself as a stranger does
- 1. Log out, or use your social app's "view as public" option, and look at your profile.
- 2. Write down what a stranger could learn: work, family, location, routines.
- 3. Change the audience of anything you do not want them to see.
Quick check
Words from this lesson
- Data privacy
- Keeping personal or confidential information under control, including deciding what you type into AI tools and where it is stored.
- Phishing
- Fake messages that pretend to be someone you trust to trick you into clicking a link, paying or sharing passwords.
- Agent
- An AI system that takes several steps on its own, such as searching, clicking or using apps, to finish a goal you set.