Ultimately, scammers are banking on human nature to make scams effective.
"Scammers want people to panic, not pause, so they use fear and urgency to rush people into clicking before they spot the scam," said Amy Bunn, online safety advocate at McAfee. Bunn says that AI tools are making this type of scan more prevalent.
"Greater access to AI tools helps cybercriminals create a higher volume of convincing text messages that trick people into sharing sensitive personal or payment information – like they'd enter when paying a toll road fine," Bunn said. McAfee research found that toll scams nearly quadrupled in volume from early January to the end of February this year.