Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh): Cyber thugs used voice cloning technology to extort money from the brother-in-law of a Delhi judge. The victim identified as Phoolchandra Diwakar, a resident of Lucknow was tricked into sending over Rs 1.5 lakh to the scammers after receiving a call in his brother-in-law's voice cloned using Artificial Intelligence (AI). A case has been registered and further investigation is on, police said.
According to police officials, Phoolchandra Diwakar lodged an FIR of being cheated by cyber criminals. In his complaint, Phoolchandra Diwakar said that he received a call from an unknown number. The caller was a cyber thug who talked to Phoolchandra in his brother-in-law's voice and asked for some money for the treatment of his friend.
The caller posing as Phoolchandra's brother-in-law said that he along with his friend had come to Lucknow for some work, but they met with an accident and his friend got seriously injured. The caller said that his phone got completely damaged in the accident due to which he is using someone else's phone. Panicked and misled by the realistic voice, Phoolchandra readily complied with the cyber thugs' demands and transferred Rs 1,58,000 lakh to his account.
Later when Phoolchandra called his brother-in-law to inquire about his friend's health condition, his brother-in-law said that he did not call him and none of his friends had met with an accident. Phoolchandra realised that he had been duped. He complained to the Hussainganj police.
Hussainganj Inspector Jitesh Kumar Singh said, "We received a complaint that a man was duped of over 1.5 lakh using Artificial Intelligence (AI) voice cloning tools. A case has been registered and a probe is underway to track down the scammers."
Cyber expert Amit Dubey said, "Earlier the cyber thugs used to scam people by using fake profiles and OTPs. But the scammers now use AI to dupe people people. To clone the voice, scammers first collect information about the target through social media. They then decide whose voice they want to clone."
Dubey further said, "Following this, the cyber thugs collect their names and phone numbers and call them posing as customer care personnel or some other service provider. During the conversation, the scammers record their voice. Just by using a small sample of a person's voice, scammers use voice cloning tools to pull off such scams."
Rahul Mishra, cyber advisor of Uttar Pradesh Police said, "I request people to always cross-check before making any monetary transactions. I also request people to not share passwords and OTPs."
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