“Grandma, I’m in jail right now and I need bail money. No wallet, no cell phone.”
Ruth Card (73), who lives in Regina, the capital of Saskatchewan, Canada, began to shake her hands when her grandson Brandon’s voice came out of the receiver. Beyond the receiver, “I was riding in a car with his friend Daniel, and I braked suddenly and got into a car accident. I heard a voice say, “Call Daniel’s father, who is a lawyer.” “The voice coming out of the handset was terrifyingly identical to that of my grandson, so I never thought to doubt it,” Card told local media.
Card immediately contacted the person who said ‘Daniel’s father and lawyer’. He told the card, “I will receive 9,400 Canadian dollars (about 9 million won) later as insurance money, so please send that amount in cash.” As soon as Card finished the call, he and his husband ran to the bank. After withdrawing the daily withdrawal limit of 3,000 Canadian dollars (about 3 million won), he immediately went to another bank and shouted urgently. “Please withdraw the money quickly.”
Feeling strange, the branch manager called the elderly couple into the office. “Yesterday a couple came and said the same thing as you. The voice you heard could be fake.”
The card came to its senses. When I thought about it, it was all strange that my grandson was put in jail for such an accident, that the amount of insurance money was decided so quickly, and that he insisted on bringing cash. The couple called their grandson, Brandon. Brandon asked. “I am safe. But who is Daniel?”
According to the Washington Post (WP) in the United States, the card couple almost fell victim to voice phishing using so-called ‘deep voice’, which replicates voices with artificial intelligence (AI). Unlike the usual methods of impersonating police or prosecutors and asking for money, it is easy to be fooled because it duplicates the voice of the victim and the person who has a trusting relationship.
The WP pointed out that “the risk of crime damage is increasing as the technology for reproducing tone and intonation becomes more sophisticated and the cost of using the technology becomes cheaper.” Professor Hanny Farid, a digital forensic expert at UC Berkeley, explained, “A year ago, many samples were required to replicate a voice, but now it is possible to clone a voice with just 30 seconds from social media such as YouTube or TikTok.”
Benjamin Perkin (39) suffered similar damage. Perkin’s parents received an unidentified phone call saying, “Car accident killed American diplomat. I need money. He heard his son’s voice say, “I love you.” He immediately exchanged tens of millions of won in his bank account for bitcoin and remitted it. After some time he realized he had been voice phishing and he reported it to the authorities but there was no way to get the money back. Perkin said that it is not clear how his voice was synthesized, but it is possible that the voice contained in the snowmobile-related video posted on YouTube was used as a sample.
Experts point out that the possibility of the spread of voice phishing crimes that abuse AI voice replication is increasing, but countermeasures are insufficient. The WP said, “There has been no case where a company providing AI voice service has been held legally responsible.” Earlier this year, illegal reproductions using the voices of celebrities, such as an audio clip of actress Emma Watson reciting Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’, were spread online.
It is known that there are no cases of voice phishing reports and arrests using Deep Voice in Korea. A police official told The Dong-A Ilbo, “Currently, we understand that domestic criminal organizations have not secured enough technology to utilize Deep Voice, but it is a crime that is likely to occur in the near future.” . Regina City Police advised, “If you receive a suspicious call, take a note, ask for the caller’s phone number, then hang up and contact an official agency.”
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.