When I received the first email from my “headhunter”, I was drawn in by how professional and customised it seemed. The writing was of a good standard and the sender was clearly familiar with my profile. It felt personal. Even five years ago, says Rosser, you could often spot a scam just by looking at the grammar. “But they’re so clever now.”

“The growing accessibility of AI means that criminals have way more leverage than they ever did before,” Webb says. “They can produce these scams much faster. They can make them more relevant, and there’s a much higher level of sophistication.”

This was the most interesting part, to me.

In the past, scammers deliberately made their pitches obvious, so only “suckers” would fall for them. With AI, it’s now available to make the whole thing believable.

And that’s truly scary.