E-Paper
AI is spurring new scams. Counter this
Scammers are now using deepfake technology to deceive victims. Urgent action and digital awareness are needed to combat this issue.
The proliferation of easily accessible Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools has had an unintended, if somewhat expected, consequence – turbocharging online scams. This newspaper reported on Tuesday that a resident of Kerala’s Kozhikode town, PS Radhakrishnan, was duped by a slew of messages on WhatsApp, with the scammers even using deepfake technology to video call Mr Radhakrishnan and convince him that the person on the other end of the line was a former colleague in desperate need of money. Police now say that the scammers used sophisticated deep-fake technology. They are also candid in admitting that this is the first such case they have tackled.
Unfortunately, it is not going to be the last. Data from the National Crime Records Bureau showed that in 2021, a cyber crime was recorded every 10 minutes somewhere in India. With AI tools and deep-fake technology more easily available, it is only a matter of time before the cyber crime farms operating across India – this newspaper has often reported on how large chunks of a village sometimes are trained to trap people in cyber fraud, especially in regions with deep economic distress – start deploying tools that the ordinary person is unfamiliar with. What’s scarier is that in a country where the privacy of personal data has little sanctity, scammers can easily misappropriate the physical likeness of someone, making these crimes with two victims – the one duped and the one whose identity is stolen. Tackling this will need urgent steps, in a country where getting embroiled in such scams still carries the threat of social shame and embarrassment for the victim. The authorities will need to stay one step ahead of the scammers, and raise digital awareness. Only collective action and open conversations can help.
