Cyber thugs dupe man of Rs 2 lakh using AI voice cloning tool

Cybercriminals used AI voice cloning tool to dupe a man of Rs two lakh in Himachal Pradesh's Shimla. Police have registered a case and initiated a probe.

Shimla (Himachal Pradesh):Cybercriminals have now taken up their scam game a notch above with Artificial Intelligence (AI) voice cloning tools. With this tool, the fraudsters are cloning the voices of nearly anyone and duping people of lakhs of rupees. One such case happened in Himachal Pradesh's capital city, where a man was duped of two lakh rupees after the thugs tricked him by mimicking his uncle's voice.

According to official sources, Sanjay from Shimla's Panthaghati received a call on July 24. The caller was a cyber thug who talked to Sanjay in his uncle's voice and asked for money for a friend's treatment. He said that the voice was so similar that he immediately believed the man and ended up losing Rs two lakh.

In his complaint to the police, Sanjay said, "I got a call on July 24 and the caller introduced himself as my uncle. I was convinced as his voice was very similar to that of my uncle. The caller cooked up a story saying that he needed money urgently for a friend's treatment. I immediately transferred Rs 50,000 first using net banking and then Rs 1,50,000. On Thursday I called my uncle on his landline number. That is when I got to know that I was duped. I immediately went to the police station to register a complaint of cyber fraud."

Police officials said that a complaint was registered on Thursday in the Chhota Shimla Police Station that a man has been duped of Rs two lakh. The bank and call details have been taken by the police and an investigation is on. Superintendent of Police (SP) Sanjeev Gandhi said, "Cyber thugs have used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to carry out the scam and dupe a man of Rs two lakh. Police have registered a case and the cyber cell is investigating the incident."

Gandhi said, "Earlier the cyber thugs used to scam people by using fake profiles and OTPs. But the thugs now use Artificial intelligence to dupe people. Just by using a small sample of a person's voice, cybercriminals use voice cloning tools to pull off such scams." I request people to always cross-check before making any monetary transactions also do not share passwords and OTPs, Gandhi added.

He also said that if by any chance people get scammed, they must first report it to the nearest cyber station or police station. Cybercrime can also be reported on the website of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).