RAIDFORD: Reducing evolving AI-enabled Online Dating Fraud by Building Digital Resilience
Project team
Prof. Edward Cartwright
Principal Investigator
Professor of Economics, De Montfort University
Dr Angela Heeler
Co-Investigator
Research Fellow, School of Health Sciences, University of Surrey
Prof. Gareth Howells
Co-Investigator
Professor of Cyber Security, University of Essex and Founder, Director & CTO of Metrarc Ltd
Dr Marek Palace
Co-Investigator
Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University
Dr Ope Dele-Ajayi
Co-Investigator
Associate Professor, Computer and Information Sciences, Northumbria University
Amel Boufermache
Researcher
PhD student, Department of Computer Science, Birmingham City University
Summary
AI-enabled cyber fraud against individuals is proliferating worldwide. Voice cloning, deepfakes, synthetic imagery, spear phishing and mass scraping of personal data from social media are just some of the techniques attackers use to facilitate romance scams, sextortion, identity theft and blackmail. Online dating provides a case in point: it is one of the main mediums through which new partners meet, and hence an essential part of modern living, but also an environment wherein AI-enabled fraud can proliferate, eroding trust.
Our project will explore how to mitigate the risks of AI-enabled fraud in online dating and enable a trusted environment where online daters can be secure. We will take a holistic approach covering the threat landscape, technical solutions, and individual vulnerability. Specifically, we will scope existing tools to reduce AI-enabled fraud, such as deepfake and synthetic media detectors and provide toolkit prototypes.
We will conduct a forward-looking economic analysis of the criminal business model, informed by the views of experts in the field, and identify weak points to disrupt the business model. We will also conduct a novel study of individual susceptibility to AI-generated dating profiles to map individual vulnerabilities.