“Mom, I stood as a guarantor for a friend, but I couldn’t reach them, so I got caught. (Deep voice)”
The so-called ‘AI phishing’ concern?that artificial intelligence (AI) could be used in voice phishing crimes?has become a reality.
An incident occurred where a person was almost scammed out of a large sum of money by a familiar voice coming from a phone number saved under the daughter’s name.
On the 14th, the Geumjeong Police Station in Busan announced that they had arrested a man in his 60s, Mr. A, who was a cash collector for a voice phishing crime organization using AI-generated voices.
Mr. A is suspected of attempting to receive cash by deceiving victims through voice phishing (aiding and abetting attempted extortion).
The victim, deceived by the voice of their daughter during a phone call, is waiting to withdraw cash at the bank. [Image source=Busan Police Agency]
According to the police, at around 1:30 p.m. on the 8th, a woman in her 60s, Ms. B, visited a bank in Geumjeong-gu to withdraw 20 million won in cash.
The bank teller suspected phishing because Ms. B was withdrawing a large amount of cash and asked if she wanted to request police assistance, to which she nodded, prompting the teller to immediately report to the police.
It was revealed that Ms. B was deceived by an AI-generated deep voice mimicking her daughter’s voice, coming from a phone number saved under her daughter’s name, and attempted to withdraw the cash.
The recorded deep voice at the time said, “Mom, I stood as a guarantor for a friend, but I couldn’t reach them, so I got caught,” deceiving Ms. B.
The police who responded to the report met Ms. B and arrested Mr. A, the cash collector, who was about to receive the cash in front of the post office. The 20 million won withdrawn by Ms. B at the bank was recovered.
Ms. B testified that during the call, the other party’s voice was exactly the same as her usually calm daughter’s voice. However, the actual daughter had not called her at that time.
The police stated, “We are investigating this as a voice phishing crime using deep voice technology and are tracking the higher-ups of the voice phishing organization.”
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