Associated Incidents
MUMBAI: A 68-year-old businessman from Powai fell victim to an artificial intelligence voice cloning scam, losing Rs80,000. The scam involved a fake call, purportedly from the Indian Embassy in Dubai, falsely claiming that the businessman, KT Vinod, 43-year-old son was arrested and facing life imprisonment on Mar 30.
The Kanjurmarg police who registered the case on Wednesday based on Vinod's complaint application said the fraudster even played the son's voice over the phone, pleading for bail.
The businessman was duped when he was at his Kanjurmarg office on Mar 30 at 12.45 pm he received a call purportedly from the Indian embassy and was informed that his son Amit has been arrested in Dubai.
In the complaint, Vinod said: "I was left in shock. Before I could recover, the person made me listen to a voice that resembled my son and was crying for help asking me to bail him out. The fraudster did not give me time to rethink or allow me to call my son's mobile. Instead, they told me to transfer money immediately, failing which my son would be sent to life imprisonment."
A Kanjurmarg police officer said the fraudster told Vinod to transfer the money through GPay. "As Vinod was not using GPay service, he asked his office staff to transfer money. He realised that he was duped when the fraudster immediately disconnected the call the moment the money was transferred. Vinod immediately called his son in Dubai and found that he was placed at his home and was never detained or arrested. The cyber team is tracking the bank details to track the accused," said the officer.
In the first case that occurred on Apr 2, SS Sarkar (58), a professor from NMIMS College fell victim to a fraud scheme, losing Rs1 lakh. She received a call from someone claiming to be 'Inspector Vijaykumar' from Mumbai police, saying her son was detained. Sarkar was at her work in a Vile Parle college, when she received the call and was told to transfer money to release her son or else he would be sent to jail.
"In Sarkar’s case, the fraudster has managed to collect her profile and family details from social media with the help of AI intelligence," said a Juhu police officer.
A senior IPS officer said phone calls are unlikely to be the direct source of phone hacks. But text messages can contain malware, and both calls and texts can be used to launch phishing attacks or other scams to trick you into giving up sensitive information, transferring money, or downloading viruses or spyware.
“In the businessman Vinod's case, the fraudster has used AI to clone his son's voice which was used to blackmail and dupe him,” said the officer.
Cyber expert Ritesh Bhatia said AI voice cloning scams are proliferating, showcasing increasing variety and sophistication. Perpetrators make use of similar-sounding voices or extract voices of the family members from social media to manipulate targets. Remain vigilant against unknown callers, who often call from fake numbers. Reach out to the supposed distressed party or authorities to verify. Also, make sure to report such numbers to the police.