What used to be considered science fiction is now real and being used by scammers!
I’ve always been a fan of science fiction but its pretty crazy to see some of these ideas in books come to life. AI Audio Spoofing is one of these technologies that has advanced to the point where it only takes 10 seconds of hearing your voice for it to clone your voice. This technology is also easily available for anyone to use which is why it has become a favorite new tool for scammers. Many of us are familiar with the scammers who call us pretending to be from the Canadian Revenue Agency or our bank and we know to hang up. But what if you get a call from your son or daughter claiming to be in jail and they urgently need money. Or your boss calls and needs you to immediately wire money to a client. In each case the voice sounds exactly like your son or daughter or your boss. The thing that is even more challenging about these types of scams is that the scammer not only has the audio spoofed voice, but they also know enough about you to be very convincing. This is why so many people are falling victim to these scams.
So, what can you do to protect yourself?
- Be skeptical of phone calls no matter who is calling if there is an urgent request for money or personal information.
- If you think you are dealing with a scammer pretending to be a person you know simply hang up and call the person you know directly.
- For family introduce a process where each family member has safe word or question, they can answer that is specific enough that a scammer would not be able to know about it from looking at social media.
- Ask very specific questions of the caller that only the real person would know the answer.
- For your business make sure there are policies and protocols in place that involve multiple forms of verification before executing money transfers or altering access permissions.
- For sensitive business transactions use identity verification technology, such as Treefort’s, to ensure that the person is who they say they are.
In conclusion, just knowing that this technology exists can help you to be more skeptical and prepared as these types of scams become more common.
Kim Krushell
Co-Founder
