New AI scams imitate loved ones’ voices
With AI taking the world by storm, new scams are also on the rise!
Artificial intelligence (AI) has changed life as we know it and, in many ways, made life easier.
Unfortunately, the rise of AI and its convenience isn’t all good, as the world has also seen an increase in AI-related scams.
One of these scams sees AI making phone scams more sophisticated and believable.
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Scammers are now using AI to clone voices, including that of friends and family.
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These scammers are using what is known as generative AI, which refers to systems capable of creating text, images or any other media, such as video and AI-generated voices, based on prompts from a user.
To generate these AI voices, they need lots of audio recordings of the intended target’s voice. The more examples they have of someone’s voice, the more accurate the generated voice will be.
One of the most recent incidents that shook the world was when Jennifer DeStefano encountered scammers using her 15-year-old daughter’s voice, claiming they had her.
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"Mom, these bad men have me. Help me, help me, help me," DeStefano said she was told over the phone.
But her daughter was safe in her bed.
According to CBS News, this trend has added to an enormous number of losses due to fraud.
In the US alone, residents lost almost $9-billion to fraud last year. That’s an increase of over 150% in just two years.
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