Almost half of Indians experience AI-enabled fake voice scams, 83% victims lost money: McAfee survey

"About half (47 percent) of Indian adults have experienced or know someone who has experienced some kind of AI voice scam, which is almost double the global average (25 percent). 83 percent of Indian victims said they had a loss of money- with 48 percent losing over Rs 50,000," the report said.

McAfee conducted a survey on how artificial intelligence (AI) technology is fueling a rise in online voice scams, with just three seconds of audio required to clone a person's voice.

Hearing someone talk is such a generally recognised method of creating confidence because each person's voice is distinctive and serves as the spoken equivalent of a biometric fingerprint. However, since 86 percent of Indian adults share their voice data online or in recorded notes at least once a week (via social media, voice notes, and more), cloning someone's voice is now a potent weapon in the arsenal of a cybercriminal.

"The survey reveals that more than half (69 percent) of Indians think they don’t know or cannot tell the difference between an AI voice and real voice," the report said.

The survey found 66 percent of the Indian respondents said they would reply to a voicemail or voice note purporting to be from a friend or loved one in need of money.

"Particularly if they thought the request had come from their parent (46 percent), partner or spouse (34 percent), or child (12 percent). Messages most likely to elicit a response were those claiming that the sender had been robbed (70 percent), was involved in a car incident (69 percent), lost their phone or wallet (65 percent) or needed help while travelling abroad (62 percent)," the report said.

The survey also found that the rise of deep fakes and disinformation has led to people being warier of what they see online, with 27 percent of Indian adults saying they are now less trusting of social media than ever before and 43 percent being concerned over the rise of misinformation or disinformation.

As part of McAfee’s review and assessment of this new trend, McAfee researchers spent three weeks investigating the accessibility, ease of use, and efficacy of AI voice-cloning tools, with the team finding more than a dozen freely available on the internet.

There are both free and commercial tools available, and many only require a little amount of training and knowledge to operate. Three seconds of audio was all that was required in one case to obtain an 85 percent match, but the accuracy can be improved with more time and effort. Based on a modest sample size of video files and after training the data models, McAfee researchers were able to achieve a voice match accuracy of 95 percent.

With these hoaxes predicated on preying on the emotional weaknesses present in close relationships, a fraudster could make thousands of dollars in just a few hours. The more exact the copy, the more chance a cybercriminal has of convincing someone to fork over their money.

"Artificial Intelligence brings incredible opportunities, but with any technology, there is always the potential for it to be used maliciously in the wrong hands. This is what we’re seeing today with the access and ease of use of AI tools helping cybercriminals to scale their efforts in increasingly convincing ways," McAfee CTO Steve Grobman said.