McAfee Unveils a New Era of Consumer Protection for Today’s AI-Driven World

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Sept. 29, 2026 - AI is everywhere, rapidly evolving and drastically changing the way people navigate their lives. In a world where normal, everyday interactions put people at risk, consumers need protection that keeps them safe in every moment, feels simple, and works quickly and proactively. Meet the new McAfee: a completely transformational safety solution.

Available today in the U.S. across all platforms and devices, McAfee’s new product experience seamlessly protects people's personal info, finances, connections and devices so they can shop, text, bank and browse with confidence, delivering advanced and comprehensive protection at every moment.

Every day, AI introduces new threats and complexity. Grounded in McAfee’s “Safer Than Safe” brand promise, the new experience simplifies security into one holistic safety solution:

• Simple & Easy: McAfee’s new experience does the hard work for you. Consumers no longer need to understand complex threats, technical language or how and where to find tools or settings to turn on the protections they need.
• Personalized, Proactive Assistance: Designed to help consumers stay a step ahead with proactive notifications, clear guidance and easy steps. McAfee surfaces timely and personalized alerts when your information or devices are at risk, with guided actions that explain what is happening and what to do next in plain, easy-to-understand language.
• Always-On, Unified Product: McAfee protects you everywhere you are and whatever you’re doing. The new experience brings data, identity and threat protection together into one connected experience across all your devices, so staying safe is seamless and easy.

“At McAfee, our mission is simple – we keep people safe. And with the growing concern over AI and the speed at which it's evolving, there has never been a more important moment to provide critical safety solutions proactively and simply,” said Craig Boundy, CEO of McAfee. “Our new product experience is transformative in a category that has traditionally leaned on fear, focused on lists of features over the comprehensive benefits of holistic protections, and relied on customers to do the work themselves. Now, we've built an advanced, proactive solution to keep people safe from today’s - and tomorrow’s - threats.”

The product rollout comes as AI threats are accelerating at a faster pace than ever. New McAfee Labs research uncovers how people across the country are affected by the influx of threats they face daily, including the top scams affecting consumers in each state. McAfee's consumer data also reveals that 53% of scam victims who lost money were unable to recover any of it, underscoring the need for protection that works in the moment, helps people recognize what is risky and gives them clear guidance before a scam can take hold.

The Most Common Scams Across America

McAfee analyzed its proprietary Labs data to see what threats are affecting people across the U.S. The research discovered:

• Investment and crypto scams ranked as the most common text-based scam in 47 of 50 states.
• Three states bucked the national trend, with toll and traffic violation scams topping the list in Michigan and Maine, and loan and debt relief scams No. 1 in North Dakota.
• Southern states saw the highest volume of threats per device over the three-month period, with Alabama leading with an average of more than five scam texts per device, followed by Georgia and Mississippi.
• North Dakota had the highest concentration of scams, with nearly 3 in every 100 texts identified as scams, followed closely by Hawaii.
• The most common action requested in scam texts was clicking or joining a WhatsApp group, driven heavily by investment and cryptocurrency scams.
• Fake T-Mobile reward offers were among the largest individual scam topics.

Top Scams by State

Looking beyond investment and crypto, the threats topping the list vary dramatically from state to state:

How Threats Are Affecting Americans

Beyond what McAfee Labs is seeing in scam activity, McAfee’s consumer research reveals how scams are affecting Americans in their everyday lives. The findings include:

• 44% of Americans avoid unfamiliar retailers, noting they are more hesitant to shop with sellers they don’t recognize.
• 25% have abandoned an online purchase as scam concerns are stopping some Americans before they complete checkout.
• 37% have ignored a legitimate call, text or email because of scam concerns.
• 34% have avoided trying out a new app, website, or service as they are increasingly wary of unfamiliar places online.
• 33% have avoided clicking on a legitimate message or link.

And state-by-state, the picture varies considerably:

• 92% of Alabama residents say scam concerns have changed how they behave online, compared to 82% nationally.
• 95% of Nevada residents encountered a scam in the past year, compared to 88% nationally.
• 41% of Ohio residents reported losing money to a scam, compared to 31% nationally.
• 30% of New Jersey residents see four or more scams a day, compared to 20% nationally.
• 42% of North Carolina victims recovered all the money they lost, compared to 23% nationally.

Financial Consequences of Being Scammed

McAfee also found that 53% of scam victims who lost money were unable to recover any of it. In five states, that figure climbed above 70%:

• Wyoming: 76%
• Kansas: 75%
• Louisiana: 73%
• California: 72%
• New Mexico: 72%

To learn more about how consumers can stay safe with McAfee, visit HERE. And to dive deeper into the state-by-state scam data, visit HERE.

Methodology

A McAfee survey fielded in August 2026 focused on consumers’ perceptions of online safety, trust and confidence in identifying AI or online scams, as well as their experiences with online fraud in the past year. These results represent a subset of 5,000 individuals over the age of 18 who reside in the United States, with a sample of 100 per each individual state.

McAfee Labs analyzed proprietary U.S. text-based scam data collected from May through July 2026.

About McAfee

McAfee is a global leader in safety, protecting people’s personal information, finances, privacy, identity across all their devices so they can shop, bank, browse and connect with confidence. Built around its "Safer Than Safe" brand, McAfee keeps people safe wherever they are with proactive, advanced, and comprehensive protection in one simple, connected experience. For more information, visit www.mcafee.com

Media Contacts

media@mcafee.com
mcafee@methodsandmastery.com