Greg's Corner

Are you safe from voice cloning?

It used to be if you saw someone’s voice being mimicked on the phone it was either in a movie or TV show. Now, thanks to advancements in technology voice cloning has become a reality. All someone would need is just a few recorded phrases from you to use artificial intelligence to construct a program that imitates your voice almost flawlessly. There have already been instances where voice cloning has been used against businesses where a cloned voice was used to direct funds to a con artist. it’s now being reported that individuals are being targeted as well.

The way scammers can get a recording of your voice is just by calling you and trying to get you to interact for just a few minutes. With that, they can then pose as you on a voice call to do any number of things. One of the biggest concerns about voice cloning is it being used in grandparent scams. If the scammers have a voice copy, they can pretend to be anyone related to their victim and swindle them out of their savings. The potential of voice cloning being used in grandparent scams has gotten to the point where even the Attorney General of Florida is warning residents about it.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lutmolzcyws%5D

To better protect your loved ones against such scams it’s recommended that you set up a code word to ensure that they’re talking to the person they say they are. If you receive a call that you suspect may be a cloned voice you can always ask the caller a question that only they would know. And as always, if you can call someone else in your family to make sure that the person calling is who they say they are.

With the number of scams that are taking place over the phone these days, could we be seeing the decline of phone calls as a way of communication? Within a generation will we all be using devices that only text and make no calls or will a voice cloning detector be developed by then? Only time will tell.