AI chatbots outperform humans at building trust in romance scams

On July 30, 2026, a study by researchers from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Foscari University of Venice, the University of Melbourne, and Ben Gurion University of the Negev revealed that AI chatbots can outperform humans in building trust during the early stages of "pig butchering" romance scams. In an experiment, an AI agent convinced 46 percent of test subjects to download an app, compared to just 18 percent for a human scammer, and earned higher trust scores from participants.