From Public Radio Tulsa
Scam calls get real by impersonating Tulsa police officers, loved ones thanks to AI
By Zach Boblitt
Getting a scam call is common. Getting a scam call from a voice that sounds like a Tulsa police officer is not.
“It sounded like a very, very casual conversation, as if this person was actually expecting to have spoken with me. He used my first name, my last name. They spoke very casually. That’s why it sounded so real and ultimately why it was so scary,” said Myles David...
And the police swindle isn’t even the most frightening. All people with ill-intent need is a little clip of a voice to do a spoof. Hany Farid with the University of California at Berkeley says that means scammers can sound like someone you love.
“My wife and I have a password, so if we get a phone call and it sounds out of the ordinary, we ask, ‘What’s the code word?’” said Farid...
Hany Farid is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences and the School of Information at UC Berkeley and a senior advisor to the Counter Extremism Project.
