India’s internet-using population, which surpassed 720 million in December 2022, according to Nielsen’s India Internet Report 2023, may be vulnerable to a new type of voice-based cyber scam, wherein scammers are employing artificial intelligence to replicate user voices and exploit them in cyberattacks on unsuspecting individuals, according to a report.
Cybersecurity firm McAfee revealed in a 1 May report that 47% of Indian users have either encountered or know someone who fell victim to AI voice cloning scams in January-March.
The surge in the AI voice-cloning scams corresponds with growing interest in generative AI, where algorithms process user inputs in text, image, or voice formats, and produce results based on user queries and the specific platform.
On 9 January, for instance, Microsoft introduced Vall-E, a generative AI-based voice simulator capable of replicating a user’s voice and generating responses with the users unique tonality by using just a three-second audio sample.
Several other similar tools, such as Sensory and Resemble AI, also exist. Now, scammers are leveraging these tools to dupe users, with Indians topping the list of victims globally.
McAfee data said that while up to 70% Indian users are likely to respond to a voice query from friends and family asking for financial aids by citing thefts, accidents and other emergencies, this figure is as low as 33% among users in Japan and France, 35% in Germany, and 37% in Australia.
Indian users also topped the list of users who regularly share some form of their voice on social media platforms — in the form of content in short videos, or even voice notes in messaging groups. Scammers, on this note, are leveraging this by scraping user voice data, feeding the same to AI algorithms, and generating cloned voices to implement financial scams.
