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The Three-Second Theft: Why AI Voice Fraud Outruns Every Defence

smarterarticles.co.uk

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Re: The Three-Second Theft: Why AI Voice Fraud Outruns Every Defence

#21

Post by skybrian »

This blog is kind of an interesting hybrid:

> Every article published on SmarterArticles is authored and editorially controlled by Tim Green. Artificial intelligence tools are used within a structured and supervised workflow as research and drafting instruments. All arguments, framing decisions, source selections, and final publication choices remain human-directed and under my full responsibility.

There are references at the bottom, but I would have preferred direct links or footnotes within the article. Also, direct quotes are nice. I didn’t notice any glaring AI cliches.

Re: The Three-Second Theft: Why AI Voice Fraud Outruns Every Defence

#22

Post by offsign »

Sounds like AI is just greasing the wheels of a long established 'grandparent scam'... goes something like this:

1) voice one: young adult calls, sobbing 2) grandparent inquires with a name... "Ben, is that you?" 3) voice one: "Yes grandma, it's me, Ben... I'm in trouble, please don't tell mom 4) voice two: "Hello, I'm attorney..."

My grandmother fell victim to this almost 20 years ago, which only stopped when Western Union refused to let her continue sending wires... she was forced to call her daughter (at which point they just called my brother.)

Our takeaway (at the time)... the voice doesn't even need to be terribly accurate, since the original interaction is brief / somewhat inaudible over the tears. Typically just requires an older vulnerable adult, a lucky strike with the initial setup (e.g. grandparent actually has a grandkid), and a lot of high pressure / duress salesmanship.

Re: The Three-Second Theft: Why AI Voice Fraud Outruns Every Defence

#25

Post by ryandrake »

jonathanlydall wrote: post #14
chuckadams wrote: post #2

One reasonably effective defense: "Okay, let me call you right back." Yes, there's always the whole "my phone is dead, I borrowed someone else's" or "I'm calling from a jail payphone", so I think it might become common practice to start making authentication phrases or "tell me something only we know". Another pillar of basic trust that's being eroded on an industrial scale. Sigh.

In practice this often doesn't work. Article said the imposter in this case claimed her phone had been confiscated. Fraudsters tend to also plan things such that the impersonated person can't be reached by phone at that time, either by choosing a time when they somehow know they're unavailable (e.g. impersonated person posted on social media they're boarding a plane) or in one case (12 years ago though) my SIL's pare…

> Probably the only sure advice is to be exceptionally weary of phone calls with supposed extreme time pressures to send the money now.

Quick note: you mean “wary” instead of “weary” there.

Re: The Three-Second Theft: Why AI Voice Fraud Outruns Every Defence

#26

Post by TacticalCoder »

revolvingthrow wrote: post #20

The problem described in the article is unsolvable, given that a mid-range desktop from a few years ago can easily clone a voice that's convincing enough and there are no guardrails to those. Some silly KYC laws might limit a highschool kid making deepfakes of his crush, but once a model exists it's trivial to spread it around, and for organized groups to get ahold of those. Similar will happen with images, it's just…

I don't know about that but finding excuses for the scum of this earth is certainly not a solution.

Take Europe for example: nobody dies of hunger in Europe. And yet there are plenty of thieves. People stealing tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of EUR aren't doing it to "feed their families".

Think of the situation today. Think of the victims today. Instead of thinking of tomorrow's hypothetical situation where supposedly all the honest fathers out of work would join the crime syndicate, think of today's victims.

Projecting your own insecurity about the future to excuse scummy behavior by the scum of this earth is of no help.

There are people, right now, who have a roof. Who have a family. And who are fucking scums stealing the hard earned money of others because they choosed the easy life of crime.

Zero tolerance for such motherfuckers. I care about the victims and you should too.

Re: The Three-Second Theft: Why AI Voice Fraud Outruns Every Defence

#27

Post by cik »

revolvingthrow wrote: post #20

The problem described in the article is unsolvable, given that a mid-range desktop from a few years ago can easily clone a voice that's convincing enough and there are no guardrails to those. Some silly KYC laws might limit a highschool kid making deepfakes of his crush, but once a model exists it's trivial to spread it around, and for organized groups to get ahold of those. Similar will happen with images, it's just…

Yet all of this can be easily defeated with soft language. The basic check "what's the password/verification word" will defeat this every time. This is basically opsec that we taught my grandparents, who were in their 90s. Its doable.

Re: The Three-Second Theft: Why AI Voice Fraud Outruns Every Defence

#28

Post by gilleain »

imoverclocked wrote: post #24

So, you answer your phone to the scam and… now they have your voice too. Talking on the phone is now an unmitigated liability.

The only solution? Answer the phone in an over the top comedy accent, such as Simpsons characters, or just whatever comes to mind.

Re: The Three-Second Theft: Why AI Voice Fraud Outruns Every Defence

#30

Post by tantalor »

revolvingthrow wrote: post #20

The problem described in the article is unsolvable, given that a mid-range desktop from a few years ago can easily clone a voice that's convincing enough and there are no guardrails to those. Some silly KYC laws might limit a highschool kid making deepfakes of his crush, but once a model exists it's trivial to spread it around, and for organized groups to get ahold of those. Similar will happen with images, it's just…

Could be prevented by more advanced "AI detection", especially on calls from unknown numbers.

It doesn't even have to be based on watermarking. It could be as simple as, "hold on a sec your AI countermeasure was listening and noticed you got this suspicious call, please be aware this may be a scam. Here is what you should do next..."

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