Fraudsters used AI voice cloning technology to impersonate a businessman's son and an Indian Embassy official, successfully scamming Rs 80,000 from the victim in Mumbai.
In Mumbai on March 30, 2023, a 68-year-old businessman named KT Vinod fell victim to an AI voice cloning scam that resulted in a loss of Rs 80,000. The incident occurred when Vinod received a call at his Kanjurmarg office at 12:45 PM from someone claiming to be from the Indian Embassy in Dubai. The caller falsely claimed that Vinod's 43-year-old son Amit had been arrested and was facing life imprisonment. To make the scam more convincing, the fraudster used AI voice cloning technology to play what sounded like his son's voice, pleading for help and asking to be bailed out. The scammer created urgency by not allowing Vinod time to verify the information or contact his son directly. Since Vinod did not use Google Pay, he instructed his office staff to transfer the money. The fraudster immediately disconnected the call after receiving the payment. Vinod realized he had been scammed when he subsequently called his son in Dubai and discovered he was safe at home and had never been arrested. Vinod immediately filed a police complaint, and the Kanjurmarg police registered the case on Wednesday. A similar incident occurred on April 2, where Professor SS Sarkar from NMIMS College lost Rs 1 lakh to a similar scam involving someone impersonating a Mumbai police inspector. The cyber team is currently tracking the bank details to identify the perpetrators.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to gain a personal advantage over others such as through cheating, fraud, scams, blackmail or targeted manipulation of beliefs or behavior. Examples include AI-facilitated plagiarism for research or education, impersonating a trusted or fake individual for illegitimate financial benefit, or creating humiliating or sexual imagery.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed