Coming Summer 2026
Dark Side of The Boom
How Scammers Hijacked the AI Revolution
No technology wave in history has moved as quickly or proposes to reshape our lives as profoundly as the recent advances in artificial intelligence. While there is no shortage of prophesizing about the future implications of AI, the side effects of the AI-revolution’s early innings are threatening the digital daily lives of everyday people and families. Scammers and cybercriminals are already leveraging AI advances to turbocharge their deceit, catapulting digital fraud to the fastest growing crime in countries worldwide. Through deepfake voices and images, customer support cons, and socially engineered exploitation, AI is driving the equivalent of an industrial revolution for digital fraud.
Dark Side of the Boom is a wakeup call to this immediate and sinister side of the AI revolution that is lost amidst the headline-grabbing futurist debates about whether AI will save us or destroy us. Author Patrick Coughlin draws on decades of experience in cybersecurity alongside real-world examples to shed a new light on today’s AI-powered imposter scammers, who they target, and why they succeed. The result is an engaging and compelling guide to deception in the AI era and how we protect and secure what matters most to us all.
Praise for Dark Side of the Boom
“Cyber crime pays and when powered by AI, it can make a victim of any of us. Coughlin’s timely guide to the dark side can teach you how to stay safe.”
—Richard A. Clarke, author of bestseller Cyber War and first US Special Advisor to the President for Cyber Space
“Dark Side of the Boom provides an essential guide on how to recognize the different types of scams, and important ways to prevent them from harming those you care about.”
—Susan Golden, author of bestseller Stage (Not Age) and Stanford University Lecturer
“As Patrick Coughlin says in his incisive, elegant book, there are only two kinds of people in the world today: those who have been scammed and those who will soon be scammed. Read him for a compelling history of how we got to this terrifying place, and to defend yourself properly for the inevitability.”
- - Vanessa Grigoriadis, author of Blurred Lines and Contributing Editor at Vanity Fair magazine
