Receiving AI Call – It Sounds Like Someone You Know. But Its Fake
Just a few words recorded can allow AI to imitate a person’s voice. Imagine receiving a call, and it sounds like someone you know, but the call is actually a fake AI call. Today’s post will cover exactly that scenario, and what you should do now to prepare for exactly that scenario.
How AI Is Taking Fraud To A New Level
You ever receive a call where you say Hello and it’s quiet on the other side. Perhaps you say Hello again, or you say, Is there anyone there? You might not realize it, but the quiet on the other side could be recording your voice. It literally just takes a few recorded words from you to train AI to hold a conversation and make it sound like you.
Once the scammer has your voice in an AI model, it doesn’t take much work online (and it’s free), to find information on your family members, so that they can then contact one of your family members with your recorded AI voice and make it sound like you are in trouble and need money.
It sounds crazy but it is now happening more often than you think. To see a first hand account, click on the 21 Investigates AI Daughter link from WPTA TV, a Fort Wayne, Indiana (USA) news report about a family who almost fell for this exact AI call scam.
The essence of the AI call the family received, shown on the WPTA news report, was an AI recording that sounded like the daughter, claiming she was in jail after a car crash.
“I’ve been in an accident, they’re holding me in jail and I have to pay bond to get out,” Christen Golden heard on the drive home from the grocery store.
The voice was sobbing.
Her daughter Beau had a broken nose, was locked up, and might have killed someone — or so she was told.
The scammers then proceeded to put an AI police officer on the phone with the family. The AI Officer saying that the daughter was in a crash and had injured and killed someone. Followed by an AI Attorney claiming that the daughter needed to post bond during a made up court case that was going to be happening.
Keep in mind, the family is hearing things that is making them panic. One of the main goals of all scammer is to make you panic. Once you panic, you stop thinking straight. You stop using common sense. The family in this story being told that court bond for the daughter was going to be $16,000 in cash.
However, none of it was true and none of it was actually happening. The entire time they heard their daughters voice, the voice was an AI recording. Could you tell if you were speaking to a family member for real or an AI voice?
What You Should Be Doing Now
It’s no longer a world of fake email or fake text messages. You now have to prepare for fake versions of someone you know speaking to you. It sounds like something that would only happen in a science fiction movie but it is our actual reality. Here are actual steps you should be taking now with your family
- Make up a code word. Something only your family knows. Funny enough, do NOT text or email each other the code word. Have the conversation in person. Putting it in a text or email allows AI to possibly see it and know it exists.
- If a family member is living in another city, have a mutual contact that you can reach to check up on them in person. So if your child is going to school in another city, have a contact for at least one of their school friends.
- Ask questions to your family member.
- Where did this happen?
- Where are you now?
- And then say “I’ll call you right back”. Never call back a number given to you during the fake call. Look up the number and call the hospital, jail or court system directly to speak to someone and confirm the situation.
- Search online for any details of the supposed incident. In this age of immediate information, any actual crash, especially one that involves injury or death will be reported quickly online.
- Never give your information or pay during the initial call. If it is a police officer, or court, or hospital they should allow a call back (see what was said above). No legitimate business, or legal will tell you that you need to pay in cash in a bag, with gift cards, with crypto, or with a wire transfer.
Lastly, if you do receive one of these scam AI calls, make sure your friends and family get told as quickly as possible. With information available online, the scammers may try other family members to see if one takes the scam. If mom and dad, don’t fall for it, maybe grandmom will.
Source
- WPTA TV – 21 Investigates AI Daughter
