Using AI to create fake images and voices to scam money

On February 2, Mr. Nguyen Tien Dat, General Director of Bkav's AntiMalware Research Center, said that even if you make a video call and see the face of a relative or friend and hear their voice, you are not necessarily talking to that person.

Nguyen Thanh Huong (character's name has been changed) is an office worker in Hanoi . During a conversation with a friend via Facebook Messenger, Huong's friend said goodbye and ended the conversation but suddenly returned to text, asking to borrow money and suggesting to transfer money to a bank account.

Although the account name matched her friend's name, Huong was still a little suspicious and requested a video call to verify. Her friend agreed immediately, but the call only lasted a few seconds due to "internet lag," according to her friend's explanation. Seeing her friend's face on the video call, and hearing her voice, Huong no longer doubted and transferred the money. However, it was only after the transfer was successful that Huong realized she had fallen into the hacker's trap.

Many people have fallen victim to financial scams using Deepfake and involving AI - Artificial Intelligence in recent times.

Not only Huong, many other victims, including Huong's friends and relatives, were also scammed in a similar way. The amount of money scammers have made from this type of Facebook account is up to tens of millions of dong.

In the second half of 2023, Bkav continuously received reports and requests for help from victims about similar scams. According to Bkav experts, in Huong's case, the bad guys took control of the Facebook account but did not immediately take full control, but secretly followed, waiting for an opportunity to pretend to be the victim to ask their friends and relatives to borrow money.

They use AI to create a fake video of the Facebook account owner's face and voice (Deepfake). When asked to make a video call to verify, they agree to accept the call but then quickly disconnect to avoid detection.

According to Mr. Nguyen Tien Dat, AntiMalware Research Center of Bkav, the ability to collect and analyze user data through AI allows the creation of sophisticated fraud strategies. This also means that the complexity of fraud scenarios when combining Deepfake and GPT will increase, making fraud detection more difficult.

Bkav recommends that users need to be especially vigilant, do not provide personal information (CCCD, bank account, OTP code...), do not transfer money to strangers via phone, social networks, websites with signs of fraud.

When there is a request to borrow/transfer money into an account via social networks, other authentication methods should be used such as calling or using other communication channels to reconfirm.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/canh-bao-su-dung-ai-tao-hinh-anh-va-giong-noi-gia-mao-de-lua-tien-196240202191252818.htm