Voice cloning fraud targeting 14-year-old girl: new telephone scam method exposed
A new method of telephone fraud using artificially processed voice has come to light on Saturday 19 September. The victim was a 14-year-old girl who believed she was speaking to her father.
Voice cloning in telephone fraud: 14-year-old thought she was speaking to her father
On the morning of Saturday 19 September, a new method of telephone fraud came to light, in which criminals exploit voice processing technology to deceive their victims. According to huffingtonpost.gr, a 14-year-old girl was targeted, and her father described the incident on the ERT broadcast 10′ Me Tono.
The two preliminary phone calls
The father, Mr Socrates, received the first phone call while he was in a shop near his home. An unknown person asked if he was Mr Socrates — he answered affirmatively and the call ended immediately.
Shortly afterwards, a second call followed from the same number, in which the person on the line used a different name, attempting to verify identity details. The father refused and hung up. He later concluded that the perpetrators were conducting preliminary checks to confirm the number holder and to collect voice samples.
The attack at home: fake DEDDIE employees
Approximately ten minutes later, when the father returned to his home, he found his underage daughter engaged in a phone conversation whilst taking notes simultaneously.
The 14-year-old explained that there had been a series of calls to the landline. The unknown callers presented themselves as DEDDIE employees and claimed there was an urgent problem with the electrical supply. They asked for her father's mobile phone number so they could notify him immediately.
Their questions did not stop there: they wanted to know whether there was anyone else at home and if there was a pet. The 14-year-old answered that she was alone and mentioned that the family had a cat.
The use of the "cloned" voice
Subsequently, the perpetrators asked the girl to put the call on speaker phone so she could "speak" to her father. The criminals had already obtained a voice sample from her father from the previous phone calls — specifically the word "yes". This snippet was used at the end of the communication, giving the impression that the father himself had consented to the perpetrators' requests.
Police: arrests have already been made
Konstantia Dimoglidi, a spokesman for the Hellenic Police, confirmed that this particular practice is already known to the authorities. She stated that corresponding cases have been recorded and that arrests of members of a criminal group allegedly using similar methods have recently been made.
Dimoglidi explained that the perpetrators have the ability to intercept and process a person's voice, subsequently creating new audio material that appears to come from the same person. In this way, they attempt to convince the victim that they are in communication with someone they know and trust.
Target of any age, including minors
The incident involving the 14-year-old demonstrates that telephone frauds of this type are not directed exclusively at the elderly. Anyone, regardless of age, can become a target. The fraud becomes particularly convincing when artificially processed voice of a parent or relative is used — the recognition of a familiar voice significantly reduces the victim's suspicion.
Source: Google News GR — Crime (el)