The Puerto Rico Bankers Association (ABPR), AARP Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico Police on Tuesday launched an educational campaign, "Puede ser una feca", to help older adults spot frauds created with artificial intelligence. The campaign follows the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) report showing $8.1 million in fraud losses reported in Puerto Rico last year.
Among people aged 60 or older, there were 161 complaints related to romantic frauds, and seven cases tied to artificial intelligence, with losses of $1.4 million. The campaign warns that scammers use voice cloning and deepfakes, meaning a voice, image, video or even a person that seems real may have been created or manipulated with AI.
It urges people to pause and verify before sharing personal or financial information or sending money. Audiovisual pieces, generated entirely with AI, show everyday scenarios like a call appearing to come from a financial institution or a fake online romance, then reveal the people shown never existed. ABPR president Zoimé Álvarez Rubio, AARP state director José R. Acarón and Police superintendent Joseph González Falcón spoke at the launch, with González Falcón urging citizens to report fraud attempts.
The campaign will run on the three organizations’ social media, digital media, billboards, buses and TransCita vehicles.