BUTLER TWP — Artificial intelligence is the latest trend in technology and in scams that target older people.

Scams aimed at older residents were explained Tuesday, Dec. 12, at the “Scam Jam” held at the Tanglewood Center, which is home to the Butler Senior Center.

The county sheriff’s office and the Area Agency on Aging hosted the event in which District Attorney Richard Goldinger, township police and representatives from the attorney general’s office, department of banking and securities and the AARP talked about a variety of scams and how to avoid them.

Scammers use a number of tricks, and the holiday season is a time of year when many scams are perpetrated, Sheriff Mike Slupe said.

One trick is to take video from a child’s social media posts and run the video through AI equipment to make the child’s voice say what they want it to say, said Det. Max Wittlinger of the Butler Township police department.

“You’ll get a call. It will be your grandchild’s voice,” Wittlinger said.

He said scammers use the AI-altered voice in a call to the child’s grandparents and ask them to send bail money so they can be released from the jail where they are being held after a drunken-driving arrest. The call includes a request not to call the child’s parents, he said.

In those incidents, scammers often make the child’s real cellphone number appear in the caller identification information in what’s known as “spoofing,” Wittlinger said. Because scammers can maintain the phone number for a short time only, the grandparents should hang up and call back. That call will go to the scammer’s phone, he said.

He also suggested calling the police department to check if the child has been arrested or calling the child’s parents and school.

“All they need is three seconds of a person’s voice to copy it,” said David Aitken, an AARP consumer issues task force volunteer.

Goldinger said AI is the latest type of scam, but gift cards, burial plots, lotteries, automobile warranties, student loans and unpaid taxes are some of the subjects scammers use in phone calls to reach into the pockets of young and older people.

Some scam calls originate outside the country and can’t be traced, and most victims don’t get their money back, Goldinger said.

He said his mother was fortunate to recover $1,000 from a gift card scam. She got a call from someone saying $1,000 was mistakenly deposited in her bank account. She checked her account and discovered the deposit, he said.

The caller told her to buy $1,000 in gift cards and mail them to him to resolve the problem. After she followed those instructions, the caller called again and she had to send more gift cards, he said.

He said she tried to buy more cards, but the store wouldn’t sell them to her. She realized it was a scam soon enough to stop payment of the cards, he said.

“They hacked into her account and made it look like she had more money that she should have,” Goldinger said.

He said any call from a person asking to send gift cards as a payment is a scam.

Another gift card scam involves someone going into a store and secretly scratching off the coating over the pin number, he said. The scammer records the number, covers it with a different coating and then puts the card back. After the card is purchased, the scammer uses the pin number to get the money, he said.

Lotteries and romance are used as bait to prey upon people, Wittlinger said.

A scammer will call someone and say they won a new car, but they have to pay taxes on the car before they receive it, he said.

In a romance scam, the scammer gains the trust of the would-be victim by talking for a couple weeks. Then the scammer brings up a financial crisis he or she is facing and asks the victim to send money, Wittlinger said.

Katrina Boyer, of the state department of banking and securities, said people sending checks by mail as a Christmas gift should take the envelope to a post office to prevent it from being stolen from a mailbox. Scammers can “wash” the recipient’s name and dollar amount from the check and write in their name and any dollar amount, she said.

Wittlinger said cash or a check can be stolen from the mail, but a check provides the thief with the victim’s account number.

Aitken said pens with gel ink should be used on checks because the ink smears during the washing process.

Phil Little, of the attorney general’s office, said scammers use a persons’ emotions and concern for family to trick them.

“There’s a sense or urgency built into these scams — you have to act now,” Little said.

He recommends people ask a lot of questions to a caller asking for money or gift cards because scammers make hundreds of calls a day and will give up on a call when it takes too much time.

In addition, taking time to think about what the scammer is asking can dissuade a scammer, he said.

“Scammers are like water. They follow the path of least resistance,” Little said.

He advised against sending money using a wire transfer because they can’t be reversed.

Boyer said investments pitched as having no risk or guaranteeing a return should be avoided because there are risks in all investments. She said some investment frauds use religion to appeal to potential victims.