Good morning! Today we're taking a closer look at who really should — and shouldn't — have access to your online banking, a new scam making the rounds that's worth knowing about, and a handy free tool already sitting inside your Gmail.
In today's issue: why banks are telling customers not to hand their login to an AI assistant, how a scam ring faked an entire bank call center using AI voices, and a free AI writing helper you may already have in Gmail.
Let's get started.
NEWS
Don't Give an AI Assistant Your Banking Password
You may have seen ads for new AI “assistants” or “agents” that promise to handle tasks for you online — shopping for a deal, booking a reservation, even managing your bills. To do that, some of these tools ask you to hand over your online banking username and password.
Bank of America is now telling customers, in plain terms, not to do that. Handing an AI tool your banking login is a lot like giving a stranger your debit card PIN and trusting them to use it wisely on your behalf.
Here's why that matters. If the AI buys something you didn't actually want, you may have to argue with your bank to get your money back. Banks can also flag a payment made by an AI assistant as suspicious and freeze your account until it's sorted out — and because the purchase only happened because you shared your password, the bank may consider that your mistake, not theirs.
Takeaway: If an app, chatbot, or “AI agent” ever asks for your online banking username or password so it can shop, pay bills, or manage money for you, say no — that information should stay between you and your bank.
STAYING SAFE
Scammers Used AI Voices to Fake an Entire Bank Call Center
Police in the Netherlands just broke up a scam ring that used artificial intelligence to fake dozens of different “bank employees'” voices, all to trick people out of their money. The trick is worth knowing about because nothing stops it from showing up anywhere else.
Victims got a phone call with a recording warning of “suspicious activity” on their account and were told to press 1 if they didn't recognize it. That connected them to someone posing as a bank employee, who pressured them to act fast to “secure” their card. The caller then told victims to download an app and hold their bank card against their phone, supposedly to protect it — but the app was actually copying the card's chip information. An accomplice waiting at a cash machine then used that copied data to withdraw money, often before the victim even hung up the phone.
Police say the callers used AI to generate dozens of voice recordings with different voices and different bank names, which is how the same basic trick could sound convincing to so many different people. Over about three weeks, the scheme pulled in roughly $423,000 (€380,000) from 170 victims before two suspects were arrested.
Takeaway: A real bank will never call and ask you to download an app, hold your card against your phone, or hand over your PIN. If you get a call like this, hang up and call your bank back yourself, using the number printed on your card.
— NL Times
TRY THIS
Already Using Gmail? You May Already Have a Free AI Writing Helper
If you use Gmail, Google's free email service, there's a good chance you already have access to a built-in AI helper called Gemini — no extra app or subscription needed for the basics.
Two features are worth trying. Open a long email thread (say, a back-and-forth with family about planning a visit) and look for a “Summarize this email” option — Gemini gives you the main points in a few sentences, so you don't have to scroll through everything. When writing a new email, click Compose, then look for “Help me write” near the bottom of the window: type a short description of what you want to say, like “ask my doctor's office to reschedule my appointment,” and Gemini drafts it for you to review and edit before sending.
These features are rolling out gradually and started in the US in English, so if you don't see them yet, they may simply not have reached your account.
Takeaway: Next time you're dreading writing an email or wading through a long thread, open Gmail on your computer and look for the Gemini sparkle icon — it might save you the trouble.
— GSMArena
Until tomorrow,
EZ AI