Experts show how to prevent AI and deepfake scams

At the Ignite on Tour Vietnam 2026 event in Hanoi on June 11, Mr. Hoang Quang Huy, Country Director of Palo Alto Networks Vietnam, said that fraud groups are using AI, especially deepfake, with increasing sophistication. However, users can recognize and prevent deepfake scams based on two common signs.

According to him, a common feature of deepfake calls is creating time pressure. Scammers often set up emergency situations such as a loved one having an accident or a serious incident in order to push the listener into a state of panic, forcing them to “have to make an immediate decision”.

Another sign is that they tend to avoid impersonating people who are too close to the victim such as spouses. Instead, they often impersonate friends or acquaintances. Images and voices can be created by AI very similar to real people, but the way of communication or behavior often appears unusual.

According to the Director of Palo Alto Networks Vietnam, just not letting yourself get caught up in an emergency situation, and paying attention to the caller’s behavior and words, “can reduce up to 50%” the risk of becoming a victim of a deepfake call.

Commenting further, Mr. Siddharth Deshpande, CTO Asia-Pacific and Japan of Palo Alto Networks, said that dealing with deepfake needs to be based on human factors, processes and technology. People need to develop the habit of verifying information instead of automatically trusting every content they see or receive. The lesson from deepfake scams is that “many people are too quick to click on a link or take an action as soon as they receive a request.”

The 2025 cybersecurity survey and research report on individual users conducted by the National Cyber ​​Security Association (NCA) shows that the number of victims of online fraud in Vietnam has decreased compared to the previous year. Specifically, out of every 555 survey participants, one person said they were a victim of fraud, accounting for 0.18%. In 2024, this rate is one in 220 people, equivalent to 0.45%.

This is the first time the number of online fraud victims in Vietnam has recorded a decrease after many years. According to NCA, this result is thanks to the drastic measures of the authorities, along with propaganda activities and dissemination of fraud identification knowledge to the people.