Beware! Fake Voice Behind Silent Calls, Criminals Use AI

LidahTekno, Jakarta — Artificial intelligence (AI) now not only provides benefits to society, but is also used by cybercriminals to clone a person’s voice as a means of fraud.

Maybe you often receive calls from unknown foreign numbers. This kind of call is often repeated, sounds annoying, and arouses curiosity, making someone want to pick it up. However, be aware that one simple word like “hello” can be the starting point for cloning your voice.

Usually, these anonymous calls do not provide a response and only sound silent. That’s when the perpetrator tried to record the victim’s voice, then used it for the cloning process using AI technology.

AI-based technology is able to replicate the human voice with a very high level of similarity. The system works by analyzing audio samples to learn the unique characteristics of the voice, such as pitch, intonation, accent and rate of speech. With this data, AI can generate artificial voices from text or create new narratives that sound natural and realistic.

If your vote is obtained by hackers, the risks faced are enormous. Fake voice recordings can be used to commit fraud, blackmail, and spread false information. Apart from that, artificial voices can also be used to make slanderous statements or malicious speech that has the potential to damage someone’s reputation.

How the voice cloner works

The first step taken by the perpetrator is to obtain the voice of the potential victim in various ways, in the hope that a short conversation will occur that can be recorded. The voice samples are then analyzed by the AI ​​system, which in a matter of seconds is able to learn voice characteristics, such as pitch, speed of speech and emotion.

Next, this sound data is used to train a deep learning model to be able to accurately imitate the target sound. Once the training process is complete, the AI ​​can generate new sounds based on the text entered by imitating the sound patterns it has learned.

What should you do if you have become a victim?

If you become a victim, the first step is to remain calm and immediately collect all evidence related to the fraud, such as recordings, screenshots of messages, or call history. After that, make an official report to the nearest police station or cyber unit bringing all the available evidence.

Apart from that, immediately notify your family, relatives, co-workers and those closest to you so that they are alert and do not become victims of misuse of your voice.

Preventive steps that can be taken

To prevent this from happening, you can follow the steps below:

• Implement additional verification mechanisms
  
  Use a passcode or secret password that only your family or internal circle knows.

• Reduce the habit of uploading voice recordings
  
  Avoid uploading voice recordings or voice messages on social media or other digital platforms.

• Increase public education and awareness
  
  Educate yourself and others about voice cloning fraud and the warning signs, such as urgent requests and audio quality that sounds odd.

• Avoid answering calls from unknown numbers
  
  This is the simplest yet effective step to prevent the risk of fraud.