Scammer lifts lid on new AI fraud which spoofs child’s VOICE

Scams affect more people than ever before.

With this in mind, retired Metropolitan Police Detective Peter Barron and former Chief of Action Fraud Steve Profitt – who now work for online security firm Transaction 360° – teamed up with an anonymous former fraudster to write a blog featuring the name Fraudster’s Diary.

Their aim is to try and lift the lid on the dark world of financial fraud.

They want to use their experience catching criminals, as well as the inside intelligence of the anonymous fraudster, to educate the public about how scammers really operate – and help them avoid falling victim.

Here, the reformed con artist writes for This is Money about a disturbing new scam where criminals use the latest artificial intelligence technology to spoof someone’s voice and trick parents into believing their child is in trouble…

Since my retired cop blog buddy was also a hostage negotiator, I knew I had to speak to him urgently as soon as I heard about this particular scam.

It tricks parents into thinking their child has been kidnapped – and does so using the latest technology.

Fraudsters are agile criminals who recognize emerging opportunities as quickly as the sharpest entrepreneurs.

However, unlike entrepreneurs, they are not constrained by laws, government guidelines, industry regulations, or even budgets.

While technical experts will spend months or even years refining their product before bringing it to market, fraudsters bring it to market within days. No wonder they stay at least two steps ahead of law enforcement.

I’m sure most people reading this have at least heard of artificial intelligence. Basically, this is where computers perform tasks that were previously performed by humans.

As technology improves, so does the scope and quality of work that the computers can complete.

One of the first criminal uses of AI was photoshopping the heads of celebrities onto the bodies of adult film stars in existing videos.

These were largely used for ‘entertainment’ and embarrassment, but the extortion possibilities are obvious.

The latest variant of using AI for nefarious purposes works something like this.

The fraudster searches social media sites for a possible victim. Let’s face it, there’s no shortage of well-to-do teens on social media, flaunting their parents’ wealth by being pictured next to their new car, showing off their new diamond ring, or standing arms outstretched draped in designer handbags.

These people also like to post short videos. Ideally, they will fly to an exotic location – or at least go somewhere other than home.

The fraudster will record the voice from these videos and use AI to convert it into a recorded message of their choice.

It sounds a bit far-fetched, but I had it demonstrated to me with my own voice. The shot, made in less than an hour, consisted of me admitting to the world that I was actually Lord Lucan and that I had buried a stash of unrecovered Brink’s-Mat gold in my backyard.

The fake message was created from an old video of me giving a short speech at a friend’s birthday party.

When I learned I was making these confessions, I was genuinely shocked; We all know our own voices, including our rhythm, cadence and the way we pronounce certain words. I had no doubt that I was listening to myself.

“Mom, Dad… I was snatched by someone”

In the case of the kidnapping scam, the fraudster can use the voice of a daughter’s social media video to create a message like this: “Mom, Dad, please help!” I was snatched by someone and they’re going to kill me.

‘They want £10,000 to let me go. whatever you do, don’t go to the police. They know everything about all of us. This is not a joke. If you transfer the money now, they’ll release me right away and it’s over.”

This is followed by sobs and maybe a scream. My police officer blogging buddy told me this is called a “proof of life” call.

It is clearly intended to ensure that the victim’s family believes the kidnapper’s threats and demands.

The scammer calls one of the parents, spoofs the number of the daughter’s mobile phone and plays the fake message.

In spoofing, the fraudster uses software that can display any number on the recipient’s phone. The same software is used to trick victims into believing that their bank is calling them for other scams.

Upon hearing the message, the mother or father immediately panics. The fraudster instructs them to write down an account number and sorting code.

He informs them that unless £10,000 is deposited into this account by the end of today, their daughter will never see them again.

They may also add that they are the target of something their husband or wife has done to them, and this is their way of getting revenge as well as compensation.

This is completely fictional, of course, but adds more credibility to the demands. They end the call by warning not to call back until four hours after the money has been transferred.

The alleged misconduct by their partner also puts the call recipient at fault, rather than the fraudster. Remember, this is all about mind games.

More often than not, the parent transfers the money within minutes and without reference to anyone else – including their partner. Once the money arrives in the fraudster’s account, it is bounced around other accounts until it is impossible to trace back to it.

Once the money has been transferred, the parent calls their partner and tells them what happened. While £10,000 is a lot of money, it’s nowhere near enough to risk their precious daughter’s life.

In the four hours before they can call back, the accusations and allegations begin, one blaming the other for the cause of it all.

After four hours they call their daughter’s cell phone; she is completely oblivious to what has happened at home. She has done dune buggy racing or whitewater rafting and is completely safe.

As long as people use social media to brag about their wealth, possessions and lifestyle, they will be targeted by criminals.

Technology is now readily available to do all of the above for very little money – a few hundred pounds will get you the software you need.

In reality, the fraudster probably never left his living room. No one was physically harmed, although the trauma of the parent receiving the abduction request can be very serious.

Given the modest resources required to run this type of scam, most fraudsters will do more than one at a time. It’s a numbers game. If only half are successful, that’s still a huge amount to “earn” in a week.

As I said before, this is all about mind games. The fraudster taps into teens’ need to brag about their lifestyle and the parents’ love and fears for their children.

It picks out partners’ insecurities, and their willingness to believe that their significant other could have upset someone enough to justify kidnapping their daughter.

Finally, it preys on the pride of victims in circumstances like this. Like the victims of love fraud, victims feel so embarrassed about being scammed, they generally decide not to report it to the police.