If you receive a phone call from someone you know claiming an urgent situation, it's wise to approach cautiously, especially if they promptly ask for financial assistance.
This advice applies just as much when the call comes from a family member or friend. Fraudsters increasingly use artificial intelligence to imitate people's voices to make such calls.
Cybercrime specialists say it's important to try to stay calm despite the stressful situation and not make hasty decisions, even if you are pressured on the phone.
Also, don't reveal any personal information. End the conversation and then call the supposed caller back at a known number to verify that they called you and there is an emergency.
In the conversation, ask questions about places, things, or events that only the person in question can answer if it is really them.
Feel free to ask "stupid" questions that have nothing to do with the current conversation. This can throw off fraudsters and their AI helpers.
If you've found that scammers have already mimicked the voice of someone you know, you may also want to agree on a secret code word or question with people close to you, which you can use to distinguish between real and fake calls.
Also, write down the date, time, and exact circumstances of dubious calls and ideally also the phone number if it's displayed, then inform the police.
Gaps in the conversation or an unnatural-sounding voice can be indications that it's an AI call. However, you often have to listen very carefully to identify fraudulent calls.
Just a few snatches of someone's speech are enough to imitate voices using AI. For example, fraudsters can often quickly obtain these online from social media. Numerous services are now available online that can be used to create these audio deepfakes.
