New AI vision models can accurately pinpoint where holiday pictures were taken without metadata, enabling scammers to craft highly personalised and credible travel-related scams, prompting warnings to delay sharing travel images online.
Scammers are finding a new use for holiday snaps: turning them into intelligence. According to McAfee, free AI vision models can identify where travel photos were taken with striking accuracy, even when the image contains no metadata or embedded location data. The company said it tested more than 20,000 photos and found one model correctly geolocated 87% of them, while another reached 91%.
The threat is not that the software reads hidden coordinates. Instead, it can infer a place from what is visible in the picture, including buildings, signs, lighting and other local details. McAfee says that even when a model cannot name the exact city, it is usually able to identify the country, which may be enough for a fraudster to make a message feel personal and credible.
That matters because scammers increasingly rely on urgency and familiarity. A victim who has posted holiday pictures from abroad may later receive a text or email claiming that their bank has spotted suspicious activity in the same country. The warning can appear convincing precisely because it matches information the target has already shared publicly. Security experts say that kind of tailoring can make a routine phishing attempt seem far more believable.
The wider fraud picture is already worrying. Help Net Security reported that the Federal Trade Commission said Americans lost $274 million to vacation and travel fraud in 2024, as criminals used fake reviews and AI-generated images to dress up bogus travel offers. Separate FBI warnings have also highlighted the rise of AI-assisted scams, including deepfake voice and video impersonation. The advice remains simple: delay posting travel photos until you are home, tighten privacy settings, and never click on payment or banking links sent by text or email. Contact the organisation directly through its official website instead.
Disclaimer: This article is intended to inform and educate, not to recommend or endorse any financial product, investment or strategy. Please consider your own financial circumstances and seek professional advice where appropriate before making financial decisions.
