The above image is just for illustration purposes and has been sourced from Canva
We called it when Microsoft announced their VALL-E AI voice cloning project, but scammers using such AI voice cloners have already put them into action as an elderly couple were recently scammed out of $21000 Canadian dollars (~RM69115). Apparently, a “lawyer” had called the elderly couple claiming that their son had killed an American diplomat in a car accident, was in jail without a phone and needed money for legal fees.
When the call was supposedly passed to the son, a simulated or cloned voice was “close enough” to fool the parents into sending the money. The money was then sent through a Bitcoin terminal apparently provided by the “lawyer” and is now completely untraceable or uninsured.
What should you watch out for?
Such scams often prey on unsuspecting folk who may be unfamiliar with technology, but the fact that you get a call from someone you don’t know telling you to send money urgently to a gateway you’ve never heard of should definitely be warning signs of something fishy going on. You should always double check first with the party in question who supposedly needs the money just to make sure.
With this, Deepfake voice scams are definitely real, so be extra skeptical if you receive such calls. Our voices are more readily available on public domains, through videos and other content so it isn’t that difficult to obtain the voice sample necessary to do such AI voice cloning.
It also raises questions for the banking industry, in that they should probably stop using voice verification to confirm loans and so forth. What do you think about this? We feel that it’s making us all more untrusting of each other but do share your thoughts in the comments below and stay tuned to TechNave.com
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