Deepfake scams: how a stranger can copy your friend's face and voice
Voice-clone scams: a call in your friend's voice, and your friend never made it
A call comes at night. It is your friend's voice, crying and asking for money, and it even says your name. But your friend is asleep in another country. So who is on the phone?
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1
It is 2 in the morning, and your phone rings: an unknown number. You answer, and it is Miva. She is your friend, and she travels the world for her travel channel. You are her business partner, and you look after the channel's money.
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2
She is crying. Her bag and her phone were stolen, she says, so she calls from a stranger's phone. She needs money for the hotel tonight. And please, do not tell Rono, who edits her videos: he worries too much.
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3
You know this voice. It has her accent, her laugh, and it even says your name. So you send the money from the channel's account to the account she gives you.
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4
In the morning, Miva calls from her own phone. She slept all night, and her bag never left her hotel room. She never called you.
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5
The voice came from a program. A stranger spoke or typed the words, and the program turned them into Miva's voice. It copied her voice from her travel videos, which anyone can watch.
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6
A copied voice like this is called a voice clone. A fake voice, face or video made by an AI program is called a deepfake. And a call like yours has a name too: a voice-clone scam.
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7
The scammer has never met Miva. Hundreds of her videos are online, and the program needed only a few seconds of one.
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Go further
A few names behind the story.