Scammers are targeting military families with AI-generated videos.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, service members, veterans, and their families reported losing an estimated $178 million to imposter scams last year alone.
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“The use of imagery of this conflict that is generative AI imagery is a first. This is the first real major conflict that has a ton of fake stuff from all sides coming at us,” said Ellen Gustafson, executive director of We the Veterans and Military Families, an organization working to raise awareness to help families recognize scams.
Gustafson said it’s important to remember that no matter how vivid the images or emotional the content, what you’re seeing online right now might not be real.
For example, videos circulating online show soldiers crying in uniform with rubble or coffins in the background and service members holding up wallet-sized photos of a “dead” friend have all been generated by scammers using AI.
“We have some data from the Federal Trade Commission that military consumers filed almost 100,000 examples of online fraud and that those scams cost military families $143 million just in 2024,” Gustafson said. “And if we think of today, what that could be with all the AI scams that are out there, it could be more.”
Gustafson said scammers are using everything from fake benefits offers to AI-generated images of service members.
“If it’s too good to true, it probably is,” Gustafson warned. “The use of deceased service members, the use of their images, their names, fake GoFundMe accounts are out there trying to raise money for obviously families that need it, but these are not those families.”
Gustafson said these scams aren’t just about money. They’re also designed to divide Americans, especially during global conflicts.
“We know that this technology exists and we know that people are trying to use us, especially our community, as a vector for all their bad stuff, we should be really vigilant for everything we see,” Gustafson said.
She said it’s important to know who you should trust.
“I would trust a fellow military spouse and what they say to me in person about their own experience. I would trust an actual journalist who lives in my town who’s going through their job and checking their sources. That’s what we have to get back to in this country,” Gustafson said.
Experts say if you have any doubt about a message, link, or post -- don’t click it. Instead, verify it through a trusted source before taking any action.
Gustafson’s group is now launching a new public awareness campaign called “Protect Your Six and Your Sanity” aimed at helping military families spot scams before it’s too late.
You can watch one of their PSA videos below: