Thieves turn to AI voice-cloning technology to steal your money

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — Thieves want to steal your money, and now they’re using your voice or the voice of someone you might know to get it.

Thousands of people have lost millions of dollars in what’s known as an AI voice scam. It involves using voice cloning to get people to send them money quickly.

“All they need is a clip, [a] three-second clip of your voice,” said Nicole Cordero of BBB Eastern Carolinas. “They can easily find it on social media in a lot of cases, and they can clone it to make it say whatever they need to say in order to get money from you.”

“What it is it’s someone that sounds like someone you know with a sense of urgency [that] you’ve gotta take care of this right away and send money,” Cordero said.

Paul Cerkez, a computer science professor at Coastal Carolina University, focuses on artificial intelligence.

“If I have a clone of a person’s voice, like someone doing [a] voice-over or something like that and I can record a whole bunch of that person talking, I build up a really strong clone database for that particular person, and now if I want to all I gotta do is say the following words in the voice of — and it will produce that sentence from pure text in that person’s voice,” Cerkez said.

Consumers lost a record $10 billion to fraud in 2023, and imposter scams were the most prevalent. Most imposters ask you to wire money or pay through Venmo or Cash App.

The BBB said if you receive a phone call from anyone asking for money, you should resist the urge to act immediately. In addition, don’t send money if you’re in doubt, and always secure your accounts.

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