Your phone rings. Someone you love is crying. They’ve been arrested or injured or kidnapped.
They need money now and the voice sounds exactly like them.
That’s no longer proof that it is.
Artificial intelligence can create convincing audio from a short voice clip. A public video, podcast, voicemail greeting, or social media post may give a scammer enough material to imitate someone you know.
The technology is new. The trap is not.
Scammers have always used fear to make people act before they think. AI simply makes the story sound more believable.
The Three Warning Signs: Family emergency scams usually create the same conditions: urgency (you must act immediately), secrecy (you must not call anyone else and unusual payment (you must send gift cards, cryptocurrency, or a wire transfer)
Slow down
If someone tries to make you afraid, isolated, and rushed at the same time, slow down.
Hang up.
Call your loved one using a number you already know. If they don’t answer, contact another family member or friend who can check on them and the police.
Never send money simply because the caller sounds convincing. Caller ID can be faked. A familiar voice can be cloned.
Personal details can be found online. Verification must happen through a separate path like a family code word for danger.
Before You Go
Send this article to your family group chat and choose your code word today.
You used to be able to trust a familiar voice. Now you need to trust a familiar process.
Until the next byte,
Daniel Opio