Yet another online scam was reported in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, which was highly novel in its scope and execution. A man was defrauded of 100 million rupees. 40000 for AI-based video calls. The victim received a video call from an unidentified number, with the caller pretending to be a former colleague. The reason the victim was duped was that cybercriminals had successfully used artificial intelligence tools to impersonate the man’s acquaintances. The scam was carried out through a WhatsApp video call.
After receiving fraudulent information on Friday, during an investigation, Kerala’s cyber department traced the funds and contacted certain banks to block the amount.
A victim named Radhakrishnan received a WhatsApp video call from what appeared to be a former colleague from Andhra Pradesh. According to Cyberwing SP Hari Sankar, “scammers used an AI-based video interface to impersonate their friends and demand money.” Radhakrishnan met his former colleague via video call.
But when they called again asking for money, he got suspicious. Finally, to confirm and clear his suspicions, Mr. Radhakrishnan actually called his colleague with his real phone number and confirmed that he had been scammed. I understand
How are AI-based video interfaces used to impersonate someone?
The term is famously known as “deepfake technology” for audio or video. With the help of artificial intelligence-based tools, Trickster generates synthetic voices, videos, images and virtual personas. These crimes were used to impersonate celebrities and generate fake news and statements, but now these cyber crooks have new ways of tricking ordinary people into getting them out of their money. increase.
The risk of AI-based impersonation has increased over the last few years, and cybercriminals now have new ways to trick the general public. It can also fool traditional identity verification systems by training machine learning algorithms that mimic human features such as voice, face, and handwriting.
A variety of AI tools are now being used to impersonate humans for malicious purposes, including fraud, dissemination of false information, and identity theft.
How can I identify AI-based impersonation risks?
Kerala Cyber Wing informed the public about scammers using AI-based tools that can impersonate anyone with a face or voice. To identify such scams, really look for blurred backgrounds and basic facial movements such as jaw, eye and lip movements. This is not normal for a living human being.
They also urged the public to contact the Kerala State Cyber Helpline number ‘1930’ in case of such calls.
