Interpol warns of rising threat from AI deepfake scams in new online campaign
Interpol has launched an awareness campaign warning people of the growing risk of AI-generated deepfake videos.
Criminals are increasingly using AI to impersonate friends, relatives, and colleagues. The apps they’re using are becoming more sophisticated by the day.
Interpol isn't just talking about video quality: AI can produce hyper-realistic avatars, as well as convincing faces and voices of a real person. Criminals only need a small amount of content found online.
To show how AI-generated deepfakes can be used in scams, Interpol has published three short videos on YouTube.
One of the videos shows a woman whose voice has been cloned and is used by scammers to call her mother, telling her that her luggage has been stolen and contained all of her belongings, including her money and passport. The mother is then asked to transfer $1,500 to a bank account.
The other videos demonstrate that the face of your boss can be AI-generated and used to request an urgent bank transfer, and an online lover asking for money because his pay has been delayed.
All videos end with the same message: wait, validate, don’t take the bait.
“AI is erasing the tell-tale signs of a scam. Spelling mistakes, branding inconsistencies, clumsy formatting: these red flags are fast becoming a thing of the past. Anyone can fall victim to these scams, regardless of age, region, or sector,” Toshinobu Yasuhira, Director of the Interpol Innovation Centre, says in a press release.
“At Interpol, our work on this topic is designed to give law enforcement and the public the knowledge and resources they need to recognize these threats and act before the damage is done,” he continues.
Interpol recommends that people be vigilant about unsolicited contact, urgent requests for money, attempts to manipulate them emotionally or preventing them from consulting others, unusual payment methods, and fast-moving relationships.
At all costs, people should remain calm and skeptical and verify independently. In addition, accounts should be secured with two-factor authentication (2FA). Lastly, people should discuss a safe word or secret phrase to verify someone’s identity during suspicious calls.
On top of that, businesses and organizations should train teams on deepfake scams, create secure protocols for financial transactions or data transfers, and update software regularly to protect them against spyware, keyloggers, and other malware.