Why Indian Crypto Investors Face More Convincing Fraud

• Anthropic’s September 2026 Threat Intelligence Report shows how AI used to make scams more sophisticated.
• A China-based app studio orchestrated an organized, large-scale romantic scam network using Claude AI. 
• For Indian crypto investors, AI could make financial and crypto scams harder to identify via tax refunds.

Anthropic’s September 2026 report shows artificial intelligence (AI) making scams more sophisticated, as a China-based operation used Claude-powered personas to target 25,000 people in a romantic scam network. 

For Indian crypto investors, the same technology could make financial and crypto scams harder to identify through tax refunds and exchange notifications.

How Is AI Making Crypto and Financial Scams More Convincing? 

AI is making crypto scams more convincing by allowing fraudsters to personalize interactions, maintain continuous conversations and remove obvious warning signs. Anthropic’s September 2026 threat intelligence report shows a China-based operation, tracked as GTG-15001 used Claude models across more than 20 dating apps. 

In two weeks, over 4,700 AI personas engaged with at least 25,000 individuals, generating approximately 2.36 million messages when paired with actual gig workers. AI ensured personas stayed true to their roles, ensuring conversations were natural and believable to targets at scale. 

These capabilities can also be transferred directly to crypto and financial frauds. Generative AI has the ability to generate sophisticated phishing emails, SMS messages and counterfeit alerts that replicate tax authorities, exchanges, wallets or banks. 

Chainalysis reports indicate that crypto scam losses in 2025 were nearly or over 17 billion and impersonation scams increased over 1,400% year-over-year. 

AI-related scams averaged $3.2 million per operation, approximately 4.5 times the amount of those operating without observable AI links. This makes it more difficult to differentiate fake messages from genuine communications online.

Could Indian Crypto Investors Be Targeted During ITR and Tax Refund Season? 

Indian crypto investors could face greater exposure to tax phishing during the Income Tax Return (ITR) filing and refund season. The Income Tax Department has repeatedly warned taxpayers regarding fraudulent emails, SMS and fake websites stating that refunds are approved, delayed or verification is required. 

Crypto investors could seem like more credible targets because Virtual Digital Asset (VDA) reporting requires specific tax rules, transaction records and TDS details which scammers can reference in convincing messages.

Scammers can take advantage of this complexity to send messages such as “crypto/VDA income reporting” or “TDS mismatch on digital assets” or about “refund adjustments” or “urgent Schedule VDA verification”. 

Such messages may be more credible to investors who are checking their exchanges’ statements and tax software when filing. AI can enhance these campaigns by producing high-quality, targeted, and context-aware messages at scale, eliminating the need for traditional warning indicators like grammatical errors and generic copy.

What Crypto Messages Should Investors Treat as Suspicious and How to Verify Them?

During the ITR filing season and refund requests, Indian crypto investors must view unsolicited messages or notifications that invoke a sense of urgency, seek sensitive data, or issue unexpected financial claims as suspicious. 

These include fake tax refund alerts which crypto gains, VDA TDS or Schedule VDA data that require urgent validation, fake Income Tax notices, exchange support messages and wallet security warnings. AI can refine these messages and make them more personalized.

In addition, investors should never click links or reply with personal or financial details. Tax related messages should be checked directly on the official Income Tax Department website, using the available “Authenticate Notice/Order Issued by ITD” facility. If an email is from a cryptocurrency exchange or wallet, investors should go to the official site or app and review their account activity. The seed phrases, private keys and complete OTPs should never be shared, no matter how convincing a message may seem.

Related: AI Deepfake Crypto Scam Costs Ontario Woman Over $900K

Will AI Make Financial Scams Harder to Detect in the Future? 

AI is making financial and crypto scams harder to detect as scammers use more realistic, personalized, and adaptive tactics. Fraudulent activity may look legitimate, with the help of deepfakes, voice cloning, synthetic identities and AI-generated messages removing the traditional warning signs. 

As AI becomes more sophisticated, scammers may also be able to automate more complex scams, pushing banks and fraud detection systems even harder.

Related: India’s ITR Season Creates a New Cyber Risk as Crypto Profits Meet Refund Scams