Amazing moment 60 Minutes reporter uses AI technology to perfectly replicate her own voice to ‘rip off’ her colleague – and why it should terrify all Australians
- Scammers using AI to imitate trusted phone numbers
- Matchmaking allows scammers to gain the trust of a victim.
Scammers are beginning to deploy artificial intelligence technology to trick Australians into giving up their personal information and their hard-earned money.
A new scam known as phishing involves callous thieves masking your phone number to make it look like a trusted contact, such as a bank, government agency, or loved one.
While it’s been around for a while, it’s become more nuanced with the evolution of AI technology that can mimic the exact voices of people you meet.
To demonstrate how easy it is to fool someone, 60 Minutes reporter Amelia Adams called on cybersecurity firm CyberCx to scam one of the show’s team members.
Company director Jason Edelstein used AI to perfectly mimic his voice on a phone call and ask his colleague Dan for his passport number.
To demonstrate how easy it is to fool someone, 60 Minutes reporter Amelia Adams called on cybersecurity firm CyberCx to scam one of the show’s team members.
“We’re going to call Dan … and we’re going to ask him to reveal his passport number that he needs while he’s away,” Edelstein said.
“We have some fabricated voice samples that we’re going to produce using artificial intelligence that will sound very, very similar to your voice which, combined with call spoofing, will give the scam real credibility.”
Immediately, Dan was tricked into giving up his private details thinking it was her.
One of the many Australians who have recently been swindled by phishing scams, Melbourne businessman Tim Watkins, has revealed that he lost more than $220,000.
The scammers who had scammed Mr. Watkins were able to impersonate the number for his bank, NAB, by telling him that his bank account had been used to purchase $800 worth of Amazon gift cards.
Watkins had no reason to believe the text message was suspicious and thought someone had used her account to purchase the gift cards.
A new concern is phishing, and it involves callous thieves masking your phone number to make it look like a trusted contact, such as a bank, government agency, or loved one. While already a successful tactic, it has become more nuanced with the evolution of artificial intelligence technology (pictured) that can mimic the exact voices of people you meet.
Tim Watkins (pictured), was scammed out of $220,000 in just 10 minutes after scammers used the same number as his bank, NAB, to gain his trust.
By replying to the attached phone number and providing them with a total of 10 codes sent through the same number, you unknowingly allowed ten transactions.
“Upon returning home, I logged into NAB online to discover that a significant six-figure sum had been taken, wiping out my business and personal bank accounts,” Mr Watkins told Daily Mail Australia shortly after being scammed.
“(I) was surprised that they (NAB) didn’t seem to have any protocol in place to deal with the cyber scam or to help me through what was a very traumatic time.”
Chris Sheehan, NAB fraud and group investigations executive, said: ‘Unfortunately, once funds leave an account and are sent to another bank, it is extremely difficult for us to recover them. These criminals are becoming more sophisticated and are operating quickly to move stolen funds.’
