$7.7 billion lost to scams last year. Here's how to protect yourself in under a minute.

Today's Tip: Spotting Scam Emails With AI

Everyone's worried AI will make scams impossible to catch. They've got it backwards… AI might be the best scam detector you're not using yet.

Let me explain…

Art Jankowski is 66 years old. Retired postal carrier in Milwaukee. Spent 30 years delivering mail… so the man knows what a legitimate piece of correspondence looks like. But last month, an email showed up in his inbox that nearly fooled him.

It looked like it came from his bank. Professional logo at the top. Clean formatting. It said his online account had been flagged for “unusual activity” and he needed to verify his identity within 24 hours… or his account would be locked.

Art almost clicked the link. The email looked that good.

But his nephew Kevin had shown him a trick a few weeks earlier. It takes about 30 seconds. And it might have saved Art thousands of dollars.

Art copied the entire email — every word of it — and pasted it into Grok. Then he typed one sentence underneath: “Is this email a scam? Tell me every red flag you can find.”

Within seconds, Grok came back with three specific warnings. The sender’s email address used “chase-secure-alert.com” instead of the bank’s actual domain. The link in the email pointed to a website registered just four days earlier. And the “verify now” urgency language was a textbook phishing pattern — designed to make you act before you think.

Art didn’t click. He called his bank directly using the number on the back of his debit card. They confirmed… it was a phishing attempt.

Here’s why this matters so much right now. According to the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report, Americans over 60 filed more than 201,000 fraud complaints last year… with losses totaling $7.7 billion. That’s a 59% jump from the year before. And AI-generated phishing emails were tracked for the first time.

The irony? The same technology scammers use to write better fake emails is the same technology that can tear those emails apart in seconds.

You don’t need to install anything. You don’t need to pay for anything. You just need to know what to paste and what to ask. Here’s the exact prompt that does it…

Art told me the whole thing took less than a minute. Copy. Paste. Read the answer. Done.

And the AI caught things Art never would have noticed on his own. That fake domain? It was one letter off from the bank’s actual address. The link? It was hidden behind a button that said “Verify My Account.” You’d never see the suspicious URL unless you knew to hover over it… and even then, most people don’t know what to look for.

That’s the whole point. You don’t have to know what to look for. The AI does.

Now, I know what you’re thinking… “What if I accidentally paste something with my personal info into the AI?”

That’s a smart concern. And it’s exactly why the prompt reminds you to remove personal details before pasting. Here’s the thing… the AI doesn’t need your account number or Social Security number to spot a scam. It only needs the words, the tone, and the structure of the message.

Before you paste, take 10 seconds to scan the email and delete anything private. That’s all it takes.

Here’s what to do right now. Go to your inbox. Find an email that’s been sitting there — one you weren’t sure about. Copy the text, open grok.com (or claude.ai or gemini.google.com), and paste in the prompt above.

You’ll have your answer in under a minute. And that one minute could save you thousands.

★ Quick Wins

Skill Builder: Proofreading & Editing

The “Send Check” — Make Sure Your Email Says What You Actually Mean

Here’s something most people don’t think about. You write an email to your insurance company, your doctor, or your landlord. You believe it sounds clear and professional.

But the person reading it thinks you’re angry. Or confused. Or asking for something you didn’t intend to ask for.

This happens more often than you’d expect… and it can cost you time, money, and goodwill.

AI is incredibly good at catching this. Before you hit “send” on any important email, paste your draft into Claude, Gemini, or Grok and ask it to review the message for tone, clarity, and completeness. The AI will tell you exactly how your words come across — and whether you’re missing anything the recipient needs to respond.

Here’s an example. Say you wrote this to your insurance company: “I need to know why my claim was denied. Please respond.” That feels direct to you. But to the person reading it? It might come across as demanding or cold.

AI would flag that tone and suggest something like: “I’m writing to understand the reason my claim (#12345) was denied on October 15. Could you please provide the specific explanation so I can determine my next steps? Thank you.” Same message. Completely different reception.

The difference between a good email and a great one isn’t fancy vocabulary. It’s knowing how your words land on the other side. AI acts like a trusted friend who reads your draft and says… “You might want to soften that line” or “You forgot to mention the date.” That kind of feedback used to require asking someone else to proofread it. Now you can get it in 15 seconds.

Try this the next time you need to write an email that matters. To your doctor’s office. Your insurance company. A contractor. Even a difficult note to a family member.

Paste your draft in, run the Send Check, and see what comes back.

You’ll be surprised how often one small change — a softer opening, a missing detail, a clearer ask — makes the difference between getting ignored and getting a fast response.