In a new scam, a scammer disguised as a grandchild asks grandparents for money over the phone.
In the USA, grandparents are being warned about a nasty scam where scammers have managed to copy their grandchild’s voice. After that, using artificial intelligence, the child’s grandparents are called to ask for financial assistance, and the call is made in the child’s voice.
In the phone calls to the grandparents, the scammer says that he got into problems and pleads that the incident is so embarrassing that he cannot contact his own parents.
A grandchild can say that he received, for example, a fine that he can’t pay for being a jerk.
Scammers try to appeal to grandparents’ emotions. Illustration picture. image sport
Will tour Finland at some point
The method of cheating in question has not yet been reported in Finland, but according to Traficom’s Cyber Security Center, this will probably come here at some point as well.
– At least in previous (fraud) campaigns that we have observed over the years, it seems that they always travel to Finland at some point, Cyber Security Center’s special expert Aino-Maria Väyrynen states.
Väyrynen continues that if fraudsters are only able to make money by cheating, cheating methods will also be tried around the world.
Artificial intelligence scams are becoming more common
Artificial intelligence seems to have become an established tool for fraudsters. This is especially used a lot in scam messages. Fake videos can also be made with artificial intelligence, and the technology is developing rapidly.
Using artificial intelligence in voice-based scams is still a new thing for now.
Artificial intelligence can at least clone spoken English well. The Cybersecurity Center speculates that audio samples for artificial intelligence could be obtained from, for example, social media, where people produce a lot of material containing their own voice.
– The more material is fed to artificial intelligence, the more believable the “imitation” becomes, Väyrynen estimates.
At the moment, it is still challenging to assess the matter, as the Cybersecurity Center has not been notified of this so far.
Warned about it The US Trade Commission saysthat if you get such a call, you should confirm the matter by calling a loved one.