Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): In just three months of 2024 a total of 43 voice cloning frauds, involving an amount of Rs 14 lakh, were reported. This is how much it took for the district cyber crime cell to learn about the modus operandi of cyber crooks, who have been making big bucks lately by impersonating a person and duping their kin of their hard-earned money.
Senior officials at the district cyber crime cell said that the crooks have lately been making hoax or blank phone calls to various people to collect their voice samples. After this, they process the person’s voice through several AI-based voice cloning apps, to imitate their voice. Once this is done, the crooks are all set to play clever on the kin of the person, whose voice they have processed using AI.
Meanwhile, the success rate of the Bhopal cyber crime cell in apprehending the accused in such cases is zero. The officials said they have been persevering in their efforts to trace the accused. They added that the people of the city, who have been duped by AI voice cloning apps are still in disbelief and shock, and are still not able to process how someone could imitate their kin’s voice and swindle their money.
To add to the worries is the fact that no equipment at the district cyber cell’s forensic laboratory is being useful in probing voice cloning fraud cases. When Free Press tried ascertaining the ways in which officials shall probe the cases, it found them missing from offices for several days in a row. The officials remained unresponsive over phone calls too. Other junior officials at the cyber crime wing, when asked the same, said they could not disclose anything without the permission of the senior officials.
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