How your voice could be used by phone scammers
We've all become used to scam phone calls of various kinds, but it seems AI is allowing them to become more sophisticated.
According to NordVPN, scammers are now able to create realistic voice clones from samples collected online and use them to extort money and data from victims' friends, relatives, or colleagues.
"A cheap and effective voice cloning software based on advanced machine-learning algorithms now can create highly convincing voice clones of individuals, including public figures. Scammers use these voice clones to impersonate someone trustworthy, such as a family member or a company executive, to gain the victim's trust and extract sensitive information or money," says Adrianus Warmenhoven, a cybersecurity expert at NordVPN.
Voice samples can come from uploads to social media, voice recordings from events, media interviews, or just everyday life. They may also come from recordings collected via scam calls.
These samples can be used by scammers to extort money by impersonating people the victims trust and crafting stories about car accidents, injuries, drugs found by the police, etc. These are often aimed at parents with suggestions that their children are in some kind of trouble. As with many scams it’s about injecting a sense of urgency it order to trick victims into letting their guard down.
Warmenhoven adds, "Even if you notice that you are speaking with a scammer, it does not mean that you are safe. While you might feel like you have the upper hand against the scammer in that particular situation, don't underestimate the technology at their disposal. If the call is recorded, and you give away a sample of what your voice sounds like, that could be used against you -- your cloned voice is then used in a targeted attack to fool friends or family members."
To protect yourself NordVPN advises being cautious about material you post on social media, hang up on calls as soon as you suspect they're scams, and always be wary of unexpected or unusual requests even if they appear to be from family and friends.
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