By Paige Freshwater
Copyright dailyrecord
A cyber expert has issued a warning to everyone with a social media account about a new ‘voice copying’ AI scam. Speaking on BBC Morning Live, tech journalist Spencer Kelly says scammers have been sending highly-personalised phishing scams to social media users in an attempt to access and exploit personal information . In a phishing scam, you might receive an email, text message or phone call that appears to be from a legitimate person or business asking you to update or verify your personal information by replying to an email or visiting a website. But due to the technological advances brought on by AI, scammers are reportedly now using the voices of people known to you to convince you the request is legitimate. Mr Kelly said: “You can now use AI to clone someone’s voice. All the system needs is a few seconds of their voice which they can find online. “[They] can make a person say different stuff and it is possible to fake someone’s face as well. This technique is called deep faking.” In order to achieve this, scammers will scroll through media you have publicly uploaded on social media – including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn – and adapt them using AI. “They will pull videos or photos from online and the AI will learn what you look like and they will animate you to do something else,” he added. “The scammers are using deep fakes to impersonal famous people – celebrities, public figures – but also ordinary people.” He went on to explain how the scammers might try to convince you to send money, share passwords, buy fraudulent items or take certain actions once you’ve been drawn in. Sharing a warning, he says you might receive a pre-recorded video with your friend’s image asking for money. But some scammers have taken this to yet another level and now have the ability to contact you on a live video call – looking and sounding exactly like somebody in your contact list. He said: “In some parts of the world we’re starting to see live phone and video calls, where you are talking to a scammer but the AI is turning that scammer into somebody you know, they’re changing the voice. “We have got reports of this happening in China where people have received video calls from a ‘police officer’ threatening them with arrest unless they pay money.” Mr Kelly urged people stay stay vigilant when using their phone or social media, saying there some signs you might be speaking to an AI scammer. These include: If you’ve been caught out by a scam and shared personal banking details, inform your bank immediately. If you’ve given out a password, change it right away, along with any other accounts that use the same login credentials. To report a phishing scam or seek official advice, visit the National Cyber Security Centre.
