If you’ve a sizeable portfolio, a few accounts and a couple of advisers, you’re exactly the kind of person fraudsters now want. The reason is simple. The payoff per victim is bigger, and your finances are complicated enough to hide an extra request or an odd instruction in plain sight.

The tools have changed too. Scammers no longer rely on clumsy emails full of spelling mistakes. They use AI to clone voices, stage fake video calls and draft messages that look like they came from someone you trust.

The signs to watch for aren’t always obvious, so it pays to know what’s actually happening out there. Let’s take a closer look at why wealthy investors are being singled out, the tricks fraudsters are using, and the simple habits that’ll keep your money safe.

Why Money and Complexity Make You a Target

A lot of wealthy people assume they’re too sharp to fall for a scam. That confidence is the problem. Fraudsters count on you trusting your own judgement and acting quickly when something looks urgent.

The more moving parts your financial life has, the more entry points a scammer can use. Multiple platforms, different advisers and frequent transfers all create noise, and a clever fraudster will slip in between them. One fake instruction among dozens of genuine ones is easy to miss.

This is one area where established firms are taking the threat seriously. Just this spring, Rathbones hosted a client webinar on AI-driven fraud featuring Tracy Hall, an author and advocate for financial crime awareness, which is a good example of how wealth managers are educating clients instead of leaving them to work it out alone.

The AI Tricks Being Used Right Now

The newest scams are far more convincing than older ones. Here are the main tactics in circulation:

• Voice cloning. A scammer takes audio from a public webinar or recorded talk, clones your wealth manager’s voice, then calls you with an urgent portfolio instruction.
• Deepfake video calls. A fake but believable video of an adviser asks you to approve a transfer on the spot.
• AI-written emails. Messages that copy the tone, layout and signature of genuine correspondence, with no errors to give them away.
• Fake investment platforms. Sites built with AI-generated market data and made-up performance histories that look real until your money disappears.

According to UK Finance’s Annual Fraud Report, investment fraud losses hit £221.5 million in 2025, a 40% jump on the previous year, and the Financial Conduct Authority has pointed to AI as a major reason these scams are landing.

💡You can check warnings on the FCA’s ScamSmart pages, and report suspected fraud to Report Fraud on 0300 123 2040 (or Police Scotland on 101).

Simple Steps to Protect Yourself

You don’t need to become a security expert to stay safe. A few habits will catch most of these attempts before any money moves.

Never act on a financial instruction that arrives through a single channel. If you get a call asking for an urgent transfer, hang up and ring your adviser back on the number you already have. A real adviser will never mind you checking.

Set a verification protocol for large transfers with everyone who handles your money. Agree on callback procedures and a code word if you want one. With deepfakes, trust the process rather than what you see or hear, because a video or voice can be faked, but an agreed check is much harder to get past.

Keep Your Guard Up

AI has made fraud cheaper and easier to scale, so these attempts will keep coming and they’ll keep getting better. The good news is that the defenses haven’t really changed. Slow down, confirm through a second channel, and never let urgency rush you into a decision.

Pick advisers who are open about how they protect clients and who run their own checks. The firms worth your trust are the ones already talking to clients about this, rather than the ones who only mention it after something goes wrong.

The value of your investments and the income from them may go down as well as up, and you could get back less than you invested. Past performance should not be seen as an indication of future performance.