Survey Says 83% Of Indian Voice Scam Victims Lost Money To AI-Generated Fraud

Artificial intelligence technology has a host of benefits, including the ability to streamline mundane tasks. At the same time, generative AI tools may be misused by bad actors to undertake their scams and more.

About half of Indians surveyed recently said that they were unable to differentiate between the real and cloned voice of a person, while 83% victims of voice scams had lost money, McAfee said in a report.

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AI and voice scams

The survey that lodged responses from 7,054 people was conducted in seven countries and included 1,010 respondents from India - all revolving around AI-based voice scams by imposters.

Besides noting that voice scams were now becoming more common, the report suggested using a verbal codeword among family members and close friends to avoid such situations.

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"About half (47 percent) of Indian adults have experienced or know someone who has experienced some kind of AI voice scam, which is almost double the global average (25 percent). 83 percent of Indian victims said they had a loss of money ¡ª with 48 percent losing over Rs. 50,000," the report said.

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The McAfee survey attempted to understand how AI is causing a rise in online voice scams. Many AI voice tools only need a three-second sample of a person's voice to clone it. "The survey reveals that more than half (69 percent) of Indians think they don't know or cannot tell the difference between an AI voice and real voice," the report said.

The report also added that most people would respond to the call if the request had come in from their parent (46%), partner or spouse (34%), or child (12%). Respondents were also more likely to answer if the scammers claimed that the sender had been robbed (70%), was involved in a car accident (69%), lost their phone or wallet (65%), or needed help while travelling abroad (62%).

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Also read: OpenAI's ChatGPT Unveils 'Incognito Mode' For Enhanced User Privacy

Owing to AI and its generative capabilities, 27% Indian adults now say that they don't trust social media as much, while 43% said that they were concerned about the rise of misinformation.

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