AI voice scam cases swamp cyber cell: Sounded just like my son!

Imagine you are in the middle of a busy work day and you get a call from a police officer saying your son has raped someone or your daughter has blackmailed someone using a sex tape As your mind reels from the horrid imagery the officer offers to settle the matter for a hefty sum And then comes the clincher Your precious child comes on the line and pleads with you to save them Which parent will not succumb and pay upCybercriminals now use AI to mimic childrenrsquos voices tricking parents into false scenarios like fake arrests They exploit parental instincts prompting unwitting payments before the deception is revealed Law enforcement has warned that criminals extract voice samples from social media heightening concerns in cyber cellsHorrifying casesOne reported incident at Colaba police station involved a complainant receiving a WhatsApp call from an unknown individual claiming to be from the CBI inquiring about his collegegoing sonPolice impersonation has been increasing using voice cloning techldquoThe individual posing as a CBI officer informed me that my son had been arrested in a rape case with the FIR registration process underway To prevent this I was instructed to pay Rs 50000rdquo said the complainantldquoHe even offered to connect me with my son handing the phone to my crying child whose distressing voice made it impossible for me to discern whether it was my son or someone elserdquo he told the cops in this statementThe complainant informed the police that he panicked and transferred Rs 50000 to the unknown individual posing as a CBI officerldquoAfter I sent the money he placed my call on hold for 15 minutes claiming that there were media personnel present in his office demanding Rs 1 lakh Despite expressing my inability to pay such an amount I was coerced into transferring an additional Rs 50000 Once again they connected me to a child who sounded like my sonrdquo he addedThe police stated that the complainant only realised he was being duped when the unknown person impersonating the CBI officer demanded an additional Rs 25 lakh claiming the victimrsquos family was present and also seeking payment The complainant then disconnected the call and found from his wife that their son was indeed at his collegeAnother case was reported in Tardeo where the complainant a chartered accountant received a call from an unknown person claiming to be a person named Durgesh and said ldquoDurgesh bol raha hu This is Durgesh talking this is my alternate numberrdquo The complainant recognised Durgesh as one of his acquaintancesldquoDuring our brief discussion the unknown caller informed me that his friend met with an accident and his relatives were sending some funds to my account and asked me to forward the same to his GPay numberrdquo explained the complainantldquoWhile conversing with the unknown person impersonating my friend I received a message of Rs 145 lakh credited to my account prompting me to transfer the same amount to Durgeshrsquos GPay number as instructedrdquo the complainant added in his statementThe complainant stated that he nearly forwarded Rs 95000 to the unknown callerrsquos GPay number until his daily limits were exceeded The unknown person impersonating the complainantrsquos friend then requested the remaining amount However the complainant sent screenshots to the WhatsApp number of the real Durgesh in his phone list who then called back to inquire about the GPay screenshots Only then did the complainant realise he was being duped with someone else using voice cloning tools to deceive himAnother case was reported to the Malad police station where cyber criminals employed similar techniques to extort R50 lakh from the victim The victim claimed that an unknown person posing as a CBI officer informed him that his son had been arrested in a rape case The victim was coerced into speaking to a child whose voice he didnrsquot recognise causing him to panic and ultimately pay Rs 50000Tech behind the scamsldquoCybercriminals are using RetrievalbasedVoiceConversion RbVC an AI tool to clone voices by gathering samples from social media posts This includes videos and audios making it easier for them to deceive people Parents schools and colleges sharing childrenrsquos performance videos are also contributing to this scam Itrsquos crucial to avoid posting videos of our kids to reduce this riskrdquo said cyber expert Ritesh Bhatia founder and director of V4WEBBhatia also emphasised that police impersonation cases have been increasing due to various deceptive tactics with voice cloning being just one type of cyber fraud Concerned law enforcement agencies like the CBI must issue public statements to raise awarenessldquoCases are being reported to us and our teams are actively investigating them rdquo said Datta Nalwade DCP Cyber additional chargeRs 1 lakhTotal amount transferred to scamsterRs 145lAmount that notification stated was transferred to victimrsquos account