Fraud in 2026 is faster, smarter, and more convincing than it was even a year ago. Most of that shift is familiar by now. One piece of it is not.
Angie Young, Vice President of Financial Crimes at Midwest BankCentre, explains what criminals are doing with AI and defines a form of fraud many people have never heard of.
What Criminals Are Generating With AI
The tools are being used to produce several things at once, each of which used to require real effort:
- Convincing emails and texts, written cleanly enough to pass the checks people are used to relying on
- Voice cloning, replicating a familiar voice from a short sample
- Synthetic identities, which are built from a mix of fabricated and real information
What a Synthetic Identity Actually Is
A synthetic identity is partially created using fake information and partially created using real information. That blend is what makes it difficult to catch. It is not a stolen identity, where a real person’s details are used wholesale and that person eventually notices something wrong. It is a constructed one, assembled to look legitimate enough to pass review.
Because no single victim is being impersonated outright, these cases can go unnoticed far longer than traditional identity theft.
Angie also covers why today’s scams look so real, how voice cloning scams work, and the fraud trends becoming more common in 2026.
If you have any questions, give us a call, visit us at one of our branches, or visit our fraud resource center. Your financial safety is important to us.