AI has been growing more and more within the last few years and it’s only becoming more advanced. AI can serve as a great tool, but it can also create sophisticated fraud schemes. Scammers can take these AI tools to create images, videos, or even the voice of someone you know, making the scheme feel more believable.
Voice Deepfakes
Scammers frequently impersonate people you are familiar with, such as friends or family members. They do this to trick you into giving them money.
Some reasons these scammers give are:
- Friend or family member in jail who needs you to send them bail money.
- Someone you know is in the hospital and needs money for a life-saving surgery.
- Your boss or company executive form where you work needs you to transfer some money or pay an invoice right away.
The reason why these scams are so sophisticated, is because they use AI to clone the voices of the people you know. When you answer the phone, you know the voice on the other side.
Video Deepfakes
Scammers make videos with someone else’s face to fool you into thinking it’s someone you know. Scammers have made videos endorsing a product or sweepstakes. They used a celebrity’s face to trick people into buying things they never got or entering fake sweepstakes.
Now it has moved to live video calls, where the scammer can put a filter of someone else’s face over their own in real time. They use this over facetime calls or over work video calls.
Lately, scammers have been using it to deceive workers into thinking they’re talking to a higher-up from their company. They will email you a link for a conference call and ask you to join urgently. It may seem suspicious, but when you join the call, you see other employees, so it can’t be a scam.
The scammer then lets you know that they need money transferred or an invoice paid right away.
Signs to Look Out For:
According to the Better Business Bureau, these are some steps you can take to protect yourself from these deepfake scams:
- When watching videos, it is important to be cautious about the quality. Look out for blurry spots, unnatural blinking, or no blinking, as well as frequent changes in the background and lighting.
- If the audio sounds strange, with choppy, weird inflection, phrasing, and out-of-place sounds, it’s likely a fake.
- Verify the identity of the person you are talking to in situations like this to ensure you know who they are.
- Educate your staff on identifying deepfakes by training them on what they should look out for.
- Be cautious when sharing information online. Don’t rush and always double-check before giving in to urgent requests.
Reporting:
To report these scams, go to https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/.