How do I know a voice or video call is real?
AI can fake a voice or a face well enough to fool people.
In early 2024, a finance worker at a multinational company's Hong Kong office got a message about a confidential transaction.
They were suspicious, until they joined a video call with the company's chief financial officer and several colleagues. Everyone looked and sounded right.
They made the transfers: about US$25 million in total. Everyone else on the call had been a deepfake.
Deepfake: a fake video, image or audio recording of a real person, made with AI. It shows them saying or doing something they never did.
Voice clone: a copy of someone's voice that can be made to say anything you type.
Neither needs to be perfect. It only has to be good enough for a slightly laggy call, with someone in a hurry on the other end.
A voice clone can be made from a short recording. A clip from a social media video is often enough.
In 2024, UK banks and newspapers warned that scammers were using clips from people's own videos to clone their voices, then calling family members asking for money.
The tricks are old. Only the disguise is new:
Spotting the fake by eye or ear is getting harder every year. Checking through a second route still works.
The callback number has to be one you already had, not one the caller gives you.
A simple habit that's caught on: agree a word or phrase with your family that only you know.
If "your son" calls from a strange number saying he's in trouble and needs money now, ask for the word. A cloned voice won't know it.
At work, the same idea already exists. It's called a payment approval process. Follow it, especially when someone senior asks you to skip it.
For money, passwords or access, always check through a second channel. Call back on a number you already have, or ask in person.
Agree a code word with family members.
Treat urgency and secrecy as warning signs, not reasons to hurry.
Think about what you post. Long clips of you talking are raw material for a voice clone.