Deepfake is a technique that uses artificial intelligence to create voices and images of people who have not performed certain actions. This technology, which was first widely used in movies, is now being employed in fake kidnapping crimes where criminals use it to imitate the voices of loved ones.
According to the US Federal Trade Commission, this is the second most common type of fraud among scammers, accounting for more than $11 million stolen in more than 36,000 cases reported in the United States alone in 2022.
According to Tecnoblog, a direct example involves the parents of the American Benjamin Perkin, who lost thousands of dollars following scammers used a deepfake of a lawyer to get in touch saying that he had killed a diplomat in a car accident and was arrested.
Initially Perkin’s parents were suspicious and asked to speak with their son, at this time the bandits used a deepfake with samples of his voice obtained in advance to speak to the victims pretending to be him saying that he needed money to pay bail and get out of prison. The amount can never be refunded, as it was deposited in a bitcoin terminal.
Another person who almost fell victim to the same scam is 73-year-old Canadian Ruth Card, who received a call where the bandits used the same technique to impersonate her grandson. Ruth desperately went to the bank to withdraw 3,000 Canadian dollars, regarding R$11,300, to get her grandson out of jail.
Fortunately, the manager of the second bank she went to suspected the scam and suggested that she try calling her grandson’s number, who answered the call confirming that he was not arrested.
According to the Federal Commission of the United States, the police have faced major problems in investigating arresting those responsible for these scams, as they use disposable phones and there is no precedent to blame companies that develop deepfake tools.
In addition, criminals use untraceable transfers via Bitcoin, which makes it impossible to recover values. As such, the advice is always to verify those involved in the scam by calling their loved ones to confirm information before making transfers.
