AI…Friend or Foe?
Today we are going to discuss Foe…Take this Warning Seriously
AI- Artificial Intelligence has been around for a long time (started in 1956 at Dartmouth College) and software companies have been using it to advance technology for a while. AI started entering cybercriminal space slowly, then suddenly just ramped up very quickly over the past year or so.
We’ve seen a lot in terms of advanced phishing scams, targeted phishing scams, we’ve seen where AI is being used to generate very specific emails and the language is very specific as to who the target is.
AI voice cloning scams increased dramatically over the past year, which is a very scary topic.
Fraudsters carrying out voice cloning scams will record a person’s voice or find an audio clip on social media or elsewhere on the internet. All they need is as little as 3 seconds, 10 seconds is even better to get a very realistic clone of your voice. The audio sample is then run through an AI program that replicates the voice, allowing the scammer to make it say whatever they type in addition to adding laughter, fear, and other emotions into the cloned voice.
Scammers then use artificial intelligence (AI) tools of the cloned voices of individuals they target on social media to place panicked calls to their family or friends in the hope of convincing the unwitting recipient of the call to give them money or access to sensitive information on how the scam is scripted.
Be cautious about what you post online, that’s a first step. The second step is if you do receive a phone call from an unknown number and it’s somebody that you love generally take caution – that should be a red flag to you if you’re receiving a call from an unknown number and it’s a relative or a loved one and there’s an urgent situation. Families should verify by implementing some sort of password that’s prompted using another “phrase or code word“ that can be used to verify that a caller citing some sort of emergency is indeed the family member they say they are.
