Eighty-four per cent of people surveyed by Malwarebytes say that convincing video evidence no longer feels like proof. A new report from the cybersecurity company, based on responses from 1,500 adults across the US, UK, and DACH region, maps out the scale at which AI-generated deepfakes, voice clones, and impersonation scams are dismantling confidence in digital content.
The Face Value report, published Tuesday, found that 88% of respondents said it is becoming harder to tell whether content online is genuinely human or real, and 85% said they cannot reliably distinguish a scam from a legitimate communication. That last figure was 66% in last year's equivalent survey.
Half of respondents have experienced some form of AI fraud or scam. Exposure is highest among Gen Z at 67%, compared with 30% for Baby Boomers and older adults. One in ten people said explicit AI images had been made of them without consent, and 19% reported some form of AI-driven identity harm — rising to 30% among Gen Z.
Despite high levels of concern, protective measures remain rare. Eighty-one per cent of respondents fear someone will steal a family member's likeness, but only 13% have created a family codeword to guard against it. Sixty-seven per cent worry about voice cloning, but only 19% have turned off voicemail recordings to prevent it from being used as a training source.
"AI's deepest impact isn't on our devices; it's on us. When people can no longer trust what they see, hear, or who they're talking to, the damage reaches far beyond any single scam and into the building blocks of our society," said Mark Beare, Head of Consumer at Malwarebytes. "Cybersecurity has always adapted, and it will again, but only if we recognize that what we're protecting now is something far more important than data. It's people's ability to believe one another."
The full Face Value report is available at malwarebytes.com/ai-scams.
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