Scammers are increasingly committed to confusing victims to steal money and studying complex ways to do so, including using artificial intelligence (AI). A new scam consists of manipulating voices through programs that imitate breathing, pauses and speech tone, generating phrases that are sent by audio or call to people who can recognize the sounds, such as friends and family. The aim is to deceive and extort.
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This was the case with the father of influencer Dario Centurione, who posts videos with tips and curiosities on social networks. After receiving a call that was supposedly from his son asking for money, the 71-year-old man made a R$ 600 Pix for the scammer. Dario’s father only realized that he had been scammed when he actually talked to his son, who said he had not asked for money.
How it works?
Arthur Igreja, specialist in technology and innovation and co-founder of the AAA Inovação platform, says that the main tool used for this type of scam is ElevenLabs, but there are others. The software, powered by artificial intelligence, can imitate voices, and reproduce them faithfully, using just a few minutes of real audio. There are programs that, with just 3 seconds, manage to create an identity, but they are not able to capture some aspects of the voice, language addictions and small subtleties. To be extremely reliable, these programs require 10 to 15 minutes. After the tool assimilates the original voice, all the scammer needs to do is write a sentence like: ′′Can you make a R$ 600 Pix for me? Then, the program generates an artificial voice that can deceive the victims.
Scams with artificial intelligence
The misuse or illicit use of artificial intelligence is an inevitable scenario. Criminals take advantage of the creation of technologies to develop scams. Audio manipulation is not something new for AI, but now it has been used by malicious people, who manage to make the voices closer and closer to the real thing to cheat and steal. Scams using artificial intelligence are worrisome as the technology is being used to steal a person’s privacy, security, and identity.
Scams
Credit card cloning, Pix scam, fake employee, payment card change, motoboy scam, altered boleto: the list of types of fraud is growing, as well as the number of victims. Today, a third of Brazilians have already been victims of a financial scam, according to a survey by the Brazilian Federation of Banks and the Institute for Social, Political and Economic Research (Febraban-Ipespe) released in early May. The Brazilian Federation of Banks (Febraban) warns that scammers use psychological manipulation of the user and false urgencies to get confidential information, such as passwords, number of cards and transactions.
Our Analysis:
Internet fraud is a constant threat to individuals and businesses around the world. With society increasingly digitized, thieves are creating new approaches to scam people. Cases of scammers who use information technology (so-called cybercriminals) to commit crimes on the Internet are increasingly common, using various techniques to lure victims. These cybercriminals exploit user weaknesses, try to deceive, and persuade their victims to provide sensitive information or perform some type of money transfer. The strategies are new, but the tactics are old: with the use of social engineering techniques, which consist of psychologically manipulating the user so that he provides confidential information or makes transactions in favor of gangs. Internet scams can take many forms, from phishing and malware to fake e-commerce sites and pyramid schemes. It is important to be aware of these types of scams to avoid falling for them. However, even with all the preventive measures, it is possible that you could still become a victim of fraud. In that case, it’s important to act quickly to minimize damage. It is also important to report the fraud to the relevant authorities, such as the police and regulatory bodies. In addition, simple techniques can stop some types of crimes. For instance, in the case above, creating a simple “password” only known by you and a specific relative(s), like a phrase or word that people can say when in doubt about who is talking to them, could stop many scam attempts.
Source: R7
