6 tips to protect yourself from scam calls using artificial intelligence technology

Technology is advancing, bringing us many conveniences, but it is also facilitating more sophisticated scams, especially through phone calls. Scammers are actively using AI-powered voice cloning technology to trick and intimidate users into paying them money.

In fact, we may have heard stories of families picking up the phone and hearing their loved one's terrified voice, followed by the kidnappers demanding immediate money transfer.

But there was no kidnapping in these situations. The voice was actually created by the scammers using AI technology. In this case, the user only needed to make a phone call to a relative to verify before following the scammer's requests.

However, the reality is that many families have been threatened and have paid large sums of money to these fake kidnappers. What’s worse is that as these technologies become more widespread and our data becomes more accessible, more people are becoming vulnerable to scams.

How does AI-powered scam call work?

Cybercriminals are increasingly using AI technology to make scam calls, making them more dangerous and harder to detect. To make scam calls, cybercriminals will collect your personal information from many sources, including social media, data-leaked websites, and even buy it on the black market. They then use this information to create targeted scam scenarios, making you more likely to trust them.

AI technology helps create sophisticated fake human voices, simulating the voices of friends, relatives, even bank employees or authorities. This voice can be pre-recorded or created in real time based on your conversation.

In doing so, cybercriminals will use psychological manipulation techniques to make you panic, rush, or let your guard down, making you more susceptible to making bad decisions. At the same time, they may create a sense of urgency, feign concern for you, or exploit your greed.

Although the US artificial intelligence development company OpenAI created a voice transcription service called Voice Engine, they paused its release to the public last March due to concerns about the potential for abuse.

6 Tips to Protect Yourself from Scam Calls Using AI Technology

As AI voices become more advanced, unusual pauses or latency issues will become less common, making it harder to spot spoofed voices, especially when scammers can make their calls look like they're coming from a legitimate phone number.

Here are six tips users can do to protect themselves from scam calls using AI technology.

1. Ignore suspicious calls

In the digital age, phone scams are becoming more sophisticated and more common. By recognizing and ignoring suspicious calls, you can protect yourself and your assets from scammers.

Some signs to recognize fraudulent calls that users need to pay attention to are that the caller asks to provide sensitive personal information (ID number, password, OTP code,...) or announces winning a prize, big discount or threatens, intimidates, and puts pressure on you to make a quick decision.

2. Call your loved ones

If you receive an urgent-sounding call that sounds like it belongs to a loved one, the quickest and easiest way to expose an AI kidnapping scam is to verify that your loved one is safe via text message or another phone call.

This can be difficult to do if you're panicking or don't have another phone available, but remember that you can send a text message while still on the phone with the potential scammer.

3. Set up your own password

Setting up a code for your child to handle scams is an important step in protecting them from potential dangers online. For loved ones, especially children, work together to create a secret code to use in case your child gets into trouble. You will know it is a scam if you receive a suspicious call and your loved one cannot provide the pre-determined code.

4. Ask detailed questions

You can also ask the scammer impersonating your loved one for specific details, such as what they had for dinner last night, while you try to reach your loved one. At this point, the scammer will likely give up and hang up.

5. Be careful what you post on social media platforms

It’s a good idea to minimize posting sensitive information on social media and public websites. You can also use digital watermarks to ensure your content isn’t tampered with. It’s not a perfect method, but it’s the best way until we figure out how to protect our data.

6. Don't completely trust counterfeit detection tools

There are now a number of tools that claim to be able to detect AI-manipulated audio, but most require a subscription fee, and some experts say they're not even worth using.

“You can’t trust audio tamper detection tools right now, and I can’t recommend any of them for people to use,” said VS Subrahmanian, a computer science professor at Northwestern University in the US, who tested 14 free detection tools.

Meanwhile, Mr. Manjeet Rege, Director of the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence at the University of St. Thomas (USA) added: "I think there is no single tool that is considered completely reliable for the public to detect audio spoofing. My advice at this stage is to use a combination of different spoofing detection methods."

In short, while there are no reliable and free spoofing detection tools, trust your judgment and follow the tips above to protect yourself and your loved ones from scam calls.