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Incident 492: Canadian Parents Tricked out of Thousands Using Their Son's AI Voice

Description: Two Canadian residents were scammed by an anonymous caller who used AI voice synthesis to replicate their son's voice asking them for legal fees, disguising as his lawyer.

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Entities

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Alleged: unknown developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed Ben Perkin's parents and Perkins family.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
492
Report Count
7
Incident Date
2023-01-11
Editors
Khoa Lam
Applied Taxonomies
MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
 

4.3. Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation

Risk Domain

The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
 
  1. Malicious Actors & Misuse

Entity

Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
 

Human

Timing

The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
 

Post-deployment

Intent

Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
 

Intentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

+1
TikTok: @benno56
+1
They thought loved ones were calling for help. It was an AI scam.
+3
A couple in Canada were reportedly scammed out of $21,000 after getting a call from an AI-generated voice pretending to be their son
TikTok: @benno56

TikTok: @benno56

tiktok.com

They thought loved ones were calling for help. It was an AI scam.

They thought loved ones were calling for help. It was an AI scam.

washingtonpost.com

Scammers are using voice-cloning A.I. tools to sound like victims’ relatives in desperate need of financial help. It’s working.

Scammers are using voice-cloning A.I. tools to sound like victims’ relatives in desperate need of financial help. It’s working.

fortune.com

A couple in Canada were reportedly scammed out of $21,000 after getting a call from an AI-generated voice pretending to be their son

A couple in Canada were reportedly scammed out of $21,000 after getting a call from an AI-generated voice pretending to be their son

businessinsider.com

Scammers are using AI voices to steal millions by impersonating loved ones

Scammers are using AI voices to steal millions by impersonating loved ones

androidauthority.com

Losing thousands of dollars because AI fakes the voice of a loved one

Losing thousands of dollars because AI fakes the voice of a loved one

vnexpress.net

Scammers Use Voice Cloning AI to Trick Grandma Into Thinking Grandkid Is in Jail

Scammers Use Voice Cloning AI to Trick Grandma Into Thinking Grandkid Is in Jail

futurism.com

TikTok: @benno56
tiktok.com · 2023

#chatgpt #ai #scam #scammers #voiceai #protect #prevention #awareness #education ai and scammers.

They thought loved ones were calling for help. It was an AI scam.
washingtonpost.com · 2023

The man calling Ruth Card sounded just like her grandson Brandon. So when he said he was in jail, with no wallet or cellphone, and needed cash for bail, Card scrambled to do whatever she could to help.

"It was definitely this feeling of ...…

Scammers are using voice-cloning A.I. tools to sound like victims’ relatives in desperate need of financial help. It’s working.
fortune.com · 2023

You may very well get a call in the near future from a relative in dire need of help, asking you to send them money quickly. And you might be convinced it’s them because, well, you know their voice. 

Artificial intelligence changes that. Ne…

A couple in Canada were reportedly scammed out of $21,000 after getting a call from an AI-generated voice pretending to be their son
businessinsider.com · 2023

A couple in Canada were reportedly scammed out of $21,000 after they received a call from someone claiming to be a lawyer who said their son was in jail for killing a diplomat in a car accident.

Benjamin Perkin told The Washington Post the …

Scammers are using AI voices to steal millions by impersonating loved ones
androidauthority.com · 2023
  • AI voice-generating software is allowing scammers to mimic the voice of loved ones.
  • These impersonations have led to people being scammed out of $11 million over the phone in 2022.
  • The elderly make up a majority of those who are targeted.
  • …
Losing thousands of dollars because AI fakes the voice of a loved one
vnexpress.net · 2023
AI Translated

Parents of Benjamin Perkin (Canada) received a call from their son, which was actually a fake AI, saying he was being held in custody and needed $ 15,000 urgently.

Perkin's family's nightmare, 39, began when a man claiming to be a lawyer ca…

Scammers Use Voice Cloning AI to Trick Grandma Into Thinking Grandkid Is in Jail
futurism.com · 2023

Bail Out

Ruthless scammers are always looking for the next big con, and they might've found it: using AI to imitate your loved ones over the phone.

When a 73-year-old Ruth Card heard what she thought was the voice of her grandson Brandon on…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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