Cybersecurity company S.C. Bitdefender SRL today debuted a new scam detection service designed to help users verify fraudulent online schemes delivered by email, embedded links, text and instant messaging with assistance from an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot.

Called Bitdefender Scamio, the new service is a scam detection chatbot that offers a second opinion on potential fraud attempts by analyzing emails, text messages, images, individual links and QR codes.

To use the service, users drop questionable content into Scamio and describe how it was received. Scamio then provides a verdict in seconds and offers recommendations for further action — such as whether to delete or block the send — along with providing advice on preventive measures to protect against scams in the future.

Scamio is seeking to address the well-known issue wherein fraud continues to increase every year. A U.S. Federal Trade Commission report released in February put the figure lost to fraud in the U.S. as $8.8 billion, highlighting the size of the problem.

Bitdefender argues that the recent adoption of large language model AIs by cybercriminals to assist in creating malicious content that is hard to spot is expected to exacerbate the challenge of combating online fraud in the years ahead. This is where Scamio steps in, offering AI assistance to users who may otherwise be uncertain of the legitimacy of received emails and text messages.

Scamio is powered by Bitdefender’s threat protection technologies to maximize scan detection rates with context decoding to provide scam verdicts based on understanding particular circumstances. The company claims the solution is highly effective for complex types of fraud, such as social engineering, that may bypass regular forms of detection.

The new service is simple to use, supports any device or operating system, and is accessed via web browser or Facebook Messenger. Scamio incorporates advanced natural language processing to understand and interpret user conversations, such as where there are language nuances and subtleties typically used in scams. The service is free to use and requires no downloading or previous access to a Bitdefender product.

“The rapid rise of AI adoption by cybercriminals to dupe people out of money, steal personal information and infiltrate their digital lives has become a true game changer,” said Ciprian Istrate, senior vice president of operations for Bitdefender’s Consumer Solutions Group. “Scamio evens the playing field by giving a reliable probability of malicious activity based on message content and context. It’s like having a personal assistant you can always talk to and rely on to help protect your digital life.”

Image: Bitdefender