In recent years, artificial intelligence has made considerable progress, which has revolutionized many sectors of activity, but not always the good ones! A recent article from the American blog Sammitrovic explains that phone scams with artificial intelligence are growing more and more, so much so that today they are very numerous in the United States and it is almost undetectable that it is an AI that is trying to scam you !
A worrying new development for the future
A new type of scam in the United States uses artificial intelligence to trick users into stealing their personal information, particularly their Gmail login credentials. Cybercriminals are adopting this technology to make their attempts more credible and persuasive, making fraud detection increasingly complex.
Security expert Sam Mitrovic recently almost fell victim to this new form of scam. He calls the scam “very realistic” and admits he has never seen such an audacious phone scam. The fraudster used an AI-generated voice to attempt to obtain her Gmail login information.
A well-established scam scenario
It all started when he received a notification of an attempted Gmail account recovery, as well as a missed call purportedly from ‘Google Sydney’. Mitrovic, who initially ignored these alerts, was then called back a week later by a purported Google agent, reporting suspicious activity on his account.
The phone number seemed legitimate: it was for a help desk for Google Assistant, but not for Gmail. When he requested an email to confirm the identity of the person he was talking to, he received a message that seemed authentic at first glance, but did not come from an official Google domain.
The power of AI in scams
What alerted Mitrovic was the caller’s voice. He quickly noticed that it was AI-generated, with perfect diction and word spacing too precise for natural conversation. This technological precision allows fraudsters to pose as professionals more convincingly than before.
Mitrovic warns: these phone scams are becoming more and more elaborate and credible. Using AI, fraudsters can make hundreds of calls simultaneously, allowing them to reach a large number of potential victims in record time. Although telephone spoofing and phishing calls are not new, the use of AI represents a recent and worrying development.
AI allows fraudsters to improve the quality of their communications, creating a sense of trust among their victims.
What to do to protect yourself?
Mitrovic advises to always verify phone numbers and email addresses and to be wary of unsolicited communications. If any doubt persists, contacting the company directly via official channels remains the best option (X, Facebook, customer service number, etc.). With the evolution of AI, fraud methods are becoming more sophisticated and vigilance is essential to avoid falling into their traps.
