Cyber Fraudsters Impersonate Relatives and Friends, Use Deep Fakes to Scam Victims

Hyderabad: In the ever-evolving landscape of cyber fraud using artificial intelligence (AI) and deep fakes, fraudsters are currently impersonating relatives and friends of their victims and asking them to click on links to re-send money that was mistakenly transferred to them.

Upon clicking the link, the victim’s account is debited, with deep fakes helping impersonate close contacts.

In a recent incident, a city-based techie received a call and heard her relative inform her that he had mistakenly transferred an amount into her account and requested to send it back by clicking on a link sent to her. The techie, however, did not click on the link and blocked the caller.

Dr Prasad Patibandla, a cyber investigation expert based in New Delhi, said that these links are made in such a way that the user has to key in only the password for the amount to be transferred.

“While this is one form of looting people, incidents of criminals using AI generated deep fake based video calls to loot the public are also on the rise. The callers also put the users in the fear of criminal cases and force them to click on the links and send them money,” he said.

He advised people receiving such suspicious voice or video calls to be vigilant and not click on any link sent. Further, even if there is a possibility of a genuine person calling them, users should call back their relative or friend, verify and transfer the money directly to their accounts through authentic means, instead of clicking on the links.