Elderly Couple Almost Lose RM9,800 To Scammer Using AI Voiceover To Mimic Their Grandson
A bank manager realised the voice was fake before they got scammed.
By Hafiz Zainuddin — 09 Mar 2023, 05:47 PM
From fake Facebook advertisements to asking kids to convince their parents to share credit card info, financial scams have been on the rise recently
And with the advancement of technology, scammers are even going so far as to use artificial intelligence (AI) to extort people.
Such an incident happened to a Canadian couple, 73-year-old Ruth Card and her husband, Greg Grace, when they got a call from a person who they thought was their grandson
According to The Washington Post, the elderly couple rushed to a bank in Saskatchewan, Canada, as soon as they heard their 'grandson's' cry for help through the phone call.
Posing as their grandson, the scammers told Ruth that he was in jail with no wallet or phone. He also stressed that he needed money urgently to pay for bail.
At the bank, the couple withdrew their daily limit, which was CAD3,000 (roughly RM9,800) — but they still needed more money
The exact figure of their supposed 'grandson' was asking for wasn't reported, but it was more than their daily limit. As such, the couple rushed to a second bank to withdraw even more money.
Fortunately, the bank manager at the second branch noticed there was suspicious activity going on after the couple informed them of the situation, and told them a previous customer had experienced the same thing.
Turns out, the call was initiated by a scammer using an AI voiceover software to mimic the voice of Ruth and Greg's grandson.
Ruth and her husband managed to narrowly avoid a huge financial scam thanks to the bank manager, but it seems people using AI and technology to conduct scams are still a cause for concern
"We were sucked in, we were convinced that we were talking to our grandson," Ruth exclaimed to The Washington Post.
