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CYBERCRIME REINCARNATED
Pratyush Gautam
Solan: Gone are the days when scamsters used to portray themselves as bank officials, insurance agents, or representatives of some phony company calling you to let you know about the monetary prize you have won.
The aim was to get your bank details.
If greed is the mother of all evil then fear is the mind-killer. Two weaknesses the scamsters encashed upon.
Either way,the person involved would end up divulging the bank details and becoming a victim of an online fraud.
But now, with the advancement in technology, swindlers have raised their game accordingly. More so because of the awareness regarding their MO (Modus operandi) to dupe people.
Old tricks and tantrums became obsolete hence they switched to AI for their resurrection.
Now, how does it work ?
Here are a couple of accounts from the people who had the taste of the dark side of AI technology.
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A girl received a call from an unknown number. The person on the other side introduced himself as her father’s friend,whom she met a while ago. The voice sounded familiar to raise any doubts. He told her that he had borrowed some money from her father and now wanted to return it but as he didn’t have the bank details of her father’s account,he would instead transfer the amount to her account.Without pondering upon the thoughts of confirming it from her father first she provided her bank details and ended up losing 48,000 rupees. Only then she realised that she has been tricked and without further adieu she contacted her bank to block her account.
In another case, although the person involved didn’t get duped because he was vigilant. Even though the caller’s voice was similar to his nephew, working in Delhi, in need of money.The call was not the regular call but a WhatsApp call with the number starting with +92(Pakistan).
The devious stratagem was the same.
So,how do they do it?
Voice cloning is the answer.
Thanks to the development in AI technology. Which made it child’s play to clone and mimic people’s voice.
As every coin has two sides. The same is the case with technology.
One side feels like the garden of Eden,the panacea but the folks remain oblivious to what lies on the other side. A sinister,fodder for the evil minds – Dante’s Inferno, ready to feed on the ignorant minds.
And the only way to save ourselves is by getting to know the hind side of everything which is introduced for our convenience.
How can you protect yourself?
- Fact check & verify
-If you receive a call from an unknown number & it sounds like a panicked family member or a friend or any relative is asking you for money or as the case mentioned above, try not to react or to panic yourself.
-Instead end the call and call the person concerned using the number they’ve given you or if that’s not possible then confirm it from your common relatives or friends about any incident that you just heard from the person calling from an unknown number.
-The same goes for the calls from the scammers pretending to be your bank.
-Never pick up calls from the +92 prefix if you don’t have anyone staying there. which is next to impossible.
-It is important to hang up the phone as quickly as possible because scammers don’t need an especially long clip of your voice in order to clone it. Just by saying ‘Hello ! Is anybody there? or Who’s this ?’ etc gives them enough words and inflictions in your voice and then they can easily clone your voice.
“Advanced Artificial Intelligence tools are changing the game for cybercriminals. Now, with very little effort, they can clone a person’s voice and deceive a close contact into sending money,” – Steve Grobman,McAfee’s Chief Technology Officer.
So,be vigilant and spread the word – you could be next !
