AI voice cloning aids cyber-crimes, cops issue warning against scam

Cyber-criminals seem to have adapted emerging technologies and are seeking innovative ways to commit scams. In their latest modus operandi they are using artificial intelligence (AI) voice cloning to siphon money.

In this scam cyber criminals use advanced technology to replicate a person’s voice using various platforms and call their inner circle — family, friends and relatives — mimicking their tone and speech patterns while pretending to need urgent financial help.

Cyber-crime branch officials advised people not to trust calls made by known/familiar people through unidentified/unknown numbers. They have advised to contact the person directly to confirm if it was, in fact them, who made the call.

They maintained that the best way to avoid being duped by cyber-criminals is that one should remain alert while making use of technology whether it is smartphone or computers. The cyber-crime branch would soon issue an advisory to alert people over the ‘AI Voice Cloning Scam’.

Speaking about the scam, DCP (Crime Branch) Shrut Kirti Somvanshi said that the cyber criminals make random calls to people posing as insurance agents offering policies, bank executives offering loans and credit card services, executives of courier agencies, shopping portal executives, and many others. People do not pay attention while talking on these calls, but the cyber criminals record the conversations. They use these conversations to take voice samples of their probable targets.

Using artificial intelligence tools and software, they replicate the victim’s voice, mimicking their tone and speech patterns. They then call people in their inner circle including family members, relatives and friends, tricking them either to send money or share personal information. They siphon money citing urgent needs, distressing situations or making random excuses like “My UPI linked bank account is not working. I have transferred money into your bank account. Kindly transfer the money into the bank account I am sending.”

DCP Somvanshi said that the accused even send messages from bulk messaging services stating that money was deposited in the victim’s bank account. The victims do not check the sender of the message and fall in the trap many times. All these frauds take place due to a little negligence of the victims. They do not check the messages in a hurry or trust calls supposedly made by their closed ones from unknown numbers.

DCP Somvanshi said that such cases have been reported in other states like Telangana and Karnataka among others. There are reports that such cases were reported in Madhya Pradesh too, but no such complaint has been received with the cyber-crime branch. But, as the technology becomes more sophisticated day by day, there is an urgent need for people to remain alert while receiving calls from unknown numbers.

He said that another such technology is ‘Deep Fake’ which can be used to commit severe cyber-crimes. People need to understand how to use social media platforms safely. Awareness is the key to counter them.