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With the rapid advancement of technology, cybercrime has also evolved, leading to the emergence of new threats that are more sophisticated and harder to detect. One of the most alarming developments in this area is the rise of deepfake scams, which utilize artificial intelligence to create highly realistic fake videos and audio recordings. These deepfakes are not only used to deceive the public but have also become a powerful tool for fraudsters targeting individuals and organizations alike.
You can also review: 2023-24 Deepfake examples
Deepfake scams involve the use of AI to create fake content that mimics the appearance and voice of real people. These can be video clips, audio recordings, or even manipulated live streams that are nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. Scammers use this technology to trick victims into believing they are interacting with someone they trust or know, ultimately leading to financial or personal exploitation.
In this example, scammers create fake personas to establish emotional closeness with individuals. Typically, after hijacking a real person's social media account, scammers act as that person to approach their target. Claiming to be in military service or in a foreign country, they make excuses for not being able to meet in person. By using deepfake technology, they conduct video calls to convince the victim that they are indeed a real person.
From the victim's perspective, there is an active social media account that has been around for a long time and video calls with the account owner. Therefore, they do not question the person's authenticity. After a while, the victims feel emotionally close to the scammer and start making financial contributions to help them in difficult situations. Below is a link to a video where a victim explains how they were emotionally manipulated. As you will understand from the victim's speech, scammers deliberately target individuals who are older and lonely.
In this type of fraud, scammers manipulate their victims by convincing them that their loved ones are in danger. As an example, by imitating the voice of a grandchild, scammers call elderly individuals and claim that they are in great danger, urgently asking for money. In these types of scams, sudden and urgent situations are created, to pressure the victim into acting quickly. Grandparents, thinking that their grandchild is in trouble, may send large sums of money without much thought. Similar to the previous example, it is evident that scammers closely study their victims and use deepfake technology after identifying their weak points.
Remote customer identity verification (RKYC) processes, which became a part of daily life during the pandemic, are another area where deepfake attacks are intensifying. Scammers create deepfake videos using the photos of the person whose identity they have stolen or are impersonating and pass through identity verification steps. Moreover, the quality of deepfake attacks in this area is improving every day. Recently, a specialized company in this field published a report stating that they had tested deepfake attacks on the world's ten most well-known KYC companies and successfully bypassed the systems of nine of them. A nine out of ten success rate is truly alarming. Fintech companies, in particular, which facilitate money transfers, are highly susceptible to malicious use, and there is a large number of users eager to push the limits of deepfake technology to create untraceable accounts in these companies.
It is not really possible to take personal precautions against banks or fintechs attacks. The responsibility largely falls on the institutions here. Institutions must take the necessary measures to ensure the safety of both their users and themselves and work with firms that have proven their expertise.
To protect against deepfake attacks directly targeting individuals, raising awareness and investing in advanced technologies is essential. It is crucial for companies to educate their employees about such threats, and individuals, especially when using social media, must be cautious to slow down these types of scams.
For the past four years, Techsign has been offering advanced solutions to prevent attacks on institutions. Specifically, we score our modules designed to prevent deepfake attacks on the NIST system and ensure they are always up to date.
Recently, we developed a deepfake detection tool to serve not only institutions but also individuals. With this tool, we enable people to easily determine whether the videos they find suspicious are deepfakes or real. To question the authenticity of videos you encounter online or that are sent directly to you, visit fakefinder.ai today.
