Around half of UK citizens are finding it more difficult to tell genuine offers from scams as artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used to con people, with a quarter overwhelmed.

According to a survey by National Trading Standards, which today (30 September) launched its Scam Watchlist, 47% of UK adults struggle to tell what online offers are genuine or AI fakes. It also found that 24% feel “overwhelmed” by increasingly sophisticate scams.

The government agency has launched its AI Scam Watchlist “revealing the tools and techniques increasingly being used by criminals to supercharge their scams – from digital humans and cloned voices to deepfakes and AI-generated images – and setting out how consumers can protect themselves”.

Uncertainties over scams is holding back genuine businesses that are making offers, with 19% of people avoiding certain online activity because of concerns around scams, according to the survey.

National Trading Standards also revealed the top five AI-powered scam techniques consumers are most concerned about. These were fake websites, voice cloning, deepfake video, AI-generated images and digital humans.

“[Our] intelligence shows that AI is not necessarily creating new types of scams; it is supercharging existing ones. Shopping, holiday, investment and romance scams can now be made more convincing, personalised and scalable, enabling criminals to target more people, more quickly and with less technical expertise needed than before,” said National Trading Standards.

Michael Bichard, chair of National Trading Standards, said: “AI is transforming the fraud landscape, as it paves the way for a new generation of organised criminals who need little technical expertise to create convincing scams at huge speed and scale.

“It’s easy for people to feel powerless in the face of AI, but it remains the case that prevention is a critical defence against all fraud. Ensuring people understand how AI can make scams more convincing, and equipping them with clear, practical advice to protect themselves, will be an incredibly powerful tool in the fight against AI-enabled scams.”

John Herriman, CEO at the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, said: “The launch of the AI Scam Watchlist is an important step in helping people understand the tactics being used against them and the practical actions they can take to protect themselves and their loved ones. By working together across enforcement, government, industry and consumer organisations, we can help ensure that innovation benefits society without creating new opportunities for criminals to exploit.”

In March, the UK government announced the formation of an Online Crime Centre to form a nexus in the fight against cyber fraud and disrupt the gangs behind the nation’s most pervasive crime.

The £30m project comprises experts from the government, police forces, the intelligence community, the financial services industry, mobile networks and large tech firms, coming together to work side by side, sharing crime data in real time, and building a unified picture of global fraud networks. Its inauguration came amid an expanded strategy that will see Westminster plough £250m into anti-fraud activities between now and 2029.

Its core remit will be to identify accounts, websites and phone numbers being used by organised cyber crime gangs, and to take them down at scale.