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Journalism of Courage
Imagine a scenario where the voice of your relatives, friends, kids, acquaintances, or even yours is being used to indulge in financial frauds. Sounds scary, right?
According to a report, a Haryana man was recently duped of Rs 30,000. The fraud was committed using an AI voice cloning tool. The man received a call from the scamster who talked to him in his friend’s voice and said he needed money because he was admitted to a hospital following an accident. The man later called up his friend to ask about his health only to find out that he was cheated.
A similar incident happened in Shimla, when a man lost two lakh rupees, as the fraudsters mimicked his uncle’s voice.
According to a recent McAfee report too, about 83 per cent Indians have lost money to such scams and 69 per cent Indians are unable to distinguish between human and AI-generated voices.
Artificial Intelligence is making it easier for scammers to clone voices, including those of friends and family, leading to a rise in online frauds. AI voice cloning, also known as voice synthesis or voice mimicry, is a technology that uses machine learning or artificial intelligence to stimulate a specific person’s voice. This technology requires a certain amount of voice data to analyse and learn the unique vocal characteristics of the individual. There are many free and paid tools that can be used to create voice clones and these could be used to scam the other person.
But how to identify such AI voice scams and avoid falling victim to them?
If you are getting a call from an unknown number, be cautious, especially if the person (even if you think the voice is identical to those of your family members or friends) is asking for either money or personal information. Verify the person’s identity by asking certain questions, the answers to which only the both of you would know.
Listen to the calls carefully to check any unnatural pauses or robotic speech styles. Also check for errors in pronunciation or even change in speaking tone. Notice if the voice lacks emotional expression or check for any such differences.
Scammers ask you to pay or send money in ways that make it hard for you to get your money back. If the other person is asking for a huge amount, pause, think twice, ask reasons, tell them you would think about it and call back, hang up the phone and verify the identity.
It is very easy to clone voices, scamsters can use the audio clips available in public domain, create their clones and scam your acquaintances. To ensure you and people you know are safe, do not share your audio clips on public platforms.
It is very important to be vigilant. Do not trust incoming calls from unknown parties, it is advised to verify calls if they sound even a wee bit suspicious.
