Scammers using AI: Con artist dupes man out of Rs 5 crores, uses deep fake AI to pose as friend
Scammers using AI: Con artist dupes man out of Rs 5 crores, uses deep fake AI to pose as friend
The era of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has arrived, and people worldwide are discovering innovative ways to simplify their lives using this technology. AI is now capable of writing essays and poems, simplifying and clarifying code, composing music and poetry, and much more.
As time went on, people also became aware of the potential drawbacks of this emerging technology, with the creation of deep fake images and videos being one of them. However, an individual in Northern China took it a step further and utilized deep fake technology to deceive another person out of over Rs 5 crore.
For those unfamiliar with the term, deep fakes are fabricated images and videos that appear genuine and can be utilized to spread misinformation online.
Scammers using deep fake
According to a Reuters report, a con artist in Northern China employed highly advanced ‘deep fake’ technology to deceive a person into transferring money to their account. The scammer used AI-powered face-swapping technology to impersonate the victim’s close friend.
The report states that the police in Baotou City revealed the fraudster’s modus operandi. The scammer pretended to be the victim’s friend during a video call and requested a transfer of 4.3 million yuan (approximately Rs 5 crore).
Believing that his friend urgently needed money for a bidding process, the victim transferred the requested amount. It was only after the victim’s actual friend expressed ignorance about the situation that he realized what had occurred. The police have managed to recover most of the stolen funds and are actively working to trace the remaining amount.
This incident has raised concerns in China regarding the use of AI for financial crimes.
Con artists using other forms of AI
This is not the first time that AI has been used to dupe a person of their money. Last month, in a rather bizarre case, scammers used AI to clone a teenager’s voice and demand ransom from her mother.
A report by WKYT, a US-based news channel affiliated with CBS news, revealed how a woman from Arizona, Jennifer DeStefano, got a call from an unknown number one day that turned her world upside down.
Also read: Scammers clone girl’s voice using AI in ‘kidnapping scam,’ demand $1 million as ransom
DeStefano told the news channel that her 15-year-old daughter was out on a skiing trip when she received the call. The moment she picked up the phone, the woman heard her daughter’s voice saying ‘Mom’ followed by sobbing. What followed next was a man’s voice threatening the woman to not go to the police.
The woman then added that she could hear her daughter’s voice in the background, calling for help. The man then demanded USD 1 million to let the teenager go.
“It was never a question of who is this? It was completely her voice. It was her inflection. It was the way she would have cried,” the victim told the local news media and added, “I never doubted for one second it was her. That’s the freaky part that really got me to my core.”
However, her daughter was safe and sound and had not been kidnapped at all.
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