Millions of people could fall victim to a little-known AI voice impersonation scam – and a major bank warns 28% of Britons have already been targeted
- 28% of people have been targeted by this type of scam in the past 12 months
A dark form of voice cloning is on the rise and millions of people are at risk of being caught in it.
Scammers use AI technology to imitate the voices of innocent friends or family members of their victims, using them to extort money.
A Starling Bank survey of 3,000 people found that more than a quarter of people have been targeted by AI voice cloning fraud at least once in the past year.
Yet almost half of the people have never heard of this type of scam.
New scam alert: Scammers are using AI voice cloning techniques to trick their victims into sending money
Financial fraud in all forms is on the rise, with the average adult in the UK having been a victim of fraud five times in the past 12 months.
But AI offers criminals new ways to target people and make money.
What is AI Voice Cloning Fraud and How Does it Work?
An AI voice cloning scam is an advanced form of fraud where fraudsters use voice cloning technology to copy a person’s voice based on a short audio clip.
Scammers can capture and create an audio deepfake online in just a few minutes, cheaply and easily.
Deepfakes are audio clips, videos, and photos that imitate a real person.
The audio clips used in AI voice cloning fraud can easily be taken from a video someone has uploaded online or to social media, or even from a voicemail message.
Lisa Grahame, Chief Information Security Officer at Starling Bank, said: ‘Scammers need just three seconds of audio to clone your voice.’
Scammers can then identify their victim’s family members and use the cloned voice to fake a phone call, voice message or voicemail asking for money that is urgently needed, such as because someone has had an accident or to pay the rent.
Starling Bank found that almost one in ten people say they would send whatever the person calling needed in this situation, even if they found the call strange. This means millions of people are at risk of falling victim to this scam.
How to Spot and Avoid AI Voice Cloning Fraud
Only three in ten people say they know what to look for if they become the target of a voice cloning scam.
Voice cloning can be very convincing because it uses the voice of someone you know. However, scammers can manipulate this voice with technology to make it say whatever they want.
Watch for unnatural pauses or robotic speech when asked over the phone to send money to someone who says it is a friend or family member who needs money.
One of the most important ways to avoid falling for these scams is to agree with your family on a password that is easy to remember and not public information.
That way, if a family member calls you with an urgent request for money, you can ask them for the password. If they can’t give it to you, that could be a warning sign that there’s a scammer on the line.
In response to the rise of AI voice cloning fraud, Starling Bank has launched a Safe Phrases campaign to support the government’s fraud campaign.
People are encouraged to agree on a “safe phrase” or password with their close friends and family members that no one else knows, so they can verify that they are really speaking to them when they call and ask to send money.
Lisa Grahame adds: ‘People regularly post content online with recordings of their voice without ever realising that it makes them more vulnerable to scammers.
It only takes a few minutes to come up with a safe phrase with your family and friends to scare them off.
It is therefore more important than ever that people are aware of these types of scams and how they can protect themselves and their loved ones from them.
“This is a quick and easy way to check who is on the other end of the line.”
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