Srinagar: Artificial Intelligence (AI) cloning scams are creating ripples across the country, however, no such case has so far been reported from J&K even as Cyber Police Kashmir has urged people not to fall prey to the scammers.
On the other hand, like other parts of the country, J&K is seeing a surge in telephonic and online scams by adapting innovative ways.
AI technology is fueling a rise in online voice scams, with just three seconds of audio required to clone a person’s voice.
Also, AI brings incredible opportunities, but with any technology there is always the potential for it to be used maliciously in the wrong hands.
“So far no such case has been brought into our notice,” Superintendent of Police, Cyber Police, Kashmir, Iftikhar Talib told Greater Kashmir. “We are carrying out mass awareness about cyber crime in schools, public places, and other institutions.”
He said that to deal with online scams, Cyber Police was keeping an eye but scammers were adopting innovative ways to steal money from victims and the latest one was AI voice cloning scam.
“There is no doubt J&K too, like other parts of the country, has been seeing a surge in telephonic and online scams,” Talib said. “Scammers also keep adopting innovative ways to steal money from victims.”
With the rise in popularity and adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, it is now easier to manipulate images, videos, and voices of friends and family members. Earlier this year, it was reported that cyber criminals were using AI-powered voices to target people.
According to a news report, India tops the list of victims and 83 percent of Indians have lost money in these types of scams.
Officials said that scammers are using AI to sound like family members in distress and people are falling for such scams.
According to a recent report by McAfee, more than half (69 percent) of Indians think they do not know or cannot tell the difference between an AI voice and real voice.
Since a significant number of people fall into the trap of these criminals, it is becoming more essential to make them aware of the pitfalls.
There are fake job scams where scammers typically generate bogus job advertisements on employment sites or social media.
The job postings are frequently for highly lucrative positions with less experience. The fraudsters get in touch with people after they apply for the jobs and demand money for further progress.
In some cases, scammers pose as government officials and offer people grants or new schemes.
The fraudsters often use social media, emails, calls, or text messages to target their victims.
Once they successfully gain a victim’s trust, they ask for personal information or money to “process” the grant.
Recently, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) issued a fact-check warning against a fake government scheme circulating online.
The bogus post claims that the government was offering free laptops to students and unemployed youth.
PIB has advised people to beware of such fake schemes and not to share their personal information with anyone who claims to be from the government.