Telephone fraud with AIFamiliar voice - deceptively real

In so-called shock calls, criminals pretend to be close relatives or friends of the target person on the phone. They pretend to be in an emergency situation and urgently need money. For example, because of a serious accident or because they have allegedly been arrested and bail is required. The aim of the scam is to cause panic and fear in the target person so that they act hastily and transfer money. People of all ages can be affected by such attacks.

The use of deepfake technologies takes the scam to a new level. This is because artificial intelligence can now be used to imitate the voices of people who are very familiar to the target. These voice clones can appear deceptively real. If the target person actually believes they are talking to their own child or grandchild, they may be more inclined to comply with the request.  

To digitally recreate the voice of a specific person (known as voice cloning), it only takes a few seconds of an audio recording of their voice. Criminals can obtain such recordings in several ways: For example, by secretly recording the person during a conversation or phone call. However, they can also use data from publicly accessible sources, such as social media.

There are numerous services on the internet that can be used to create such voice fakes. In general, the longer the audio recording, the more authentic the fake. This is because the AI can capture more person-specific characteristics due to the length or the voice variation it contains. For example, the pitch, speaking speed, pauses when speaking, accents or emotional nuances. The more characteristics the AI can reproduce in the synthetic voice , the more credible it appears. 

How to protect yourself against trick calls from deepfakes

• Keep calm: Stay calm and don't let yourself be put under pressure. Scammers deliberately rely on the moment of shock and urge you to make quick decisions. No matter how plausible a situation sounds: Generally remain skeptical and do not act immediately as demanded by the other person.
• Ask for the person: Ask to speak to the person you are supposedly dealing with. Fraudsters often only have a few cloned sentences at their disposal. A real conversation is usually not possible. Therefore, look out for gaps in the flow of the conversation, artificial-looking language and inconsistencies (e.g. in the voice, phrasing or contradictory statements).
• Ask for a password: Arm yourself for such situations with your closest family and friends and agree on a secret password. It is also possible to ask questions whose answers can only be known by certain people and which cannot be answered by searching the internet or via a hacked social media account (e.g. birthday or pet's name). For suspicious calls, ask for this password or ask a pre-arranged question to verify the authenticity of the call.
• Hang up: If you are not sure who is calling and you feel under pressure, hang up.
• Call the person back: Call the person who is supposedly in trouble at the number you know.
• Get support: Involve someone you trust or contact the police.
• Don'ts: Never give out private or financial information over the phone! And never transfer money or valuables to unknown persons! Do not call back using the call-back button to check the identity of the caller.
• Attention, you should be skeptical here: The "police" never call using the number "110". Serious bills and requests for money are made in writing and with a deadline for payment. Victims of an accident, for example, are not treated in hospital only after payment has been received.