Don’t Get Conned at Christmas!

Hayley Firth

A Cyber Crime seminar held at the Police Treatment Centre in Harrogate gave our Accounts Manager Hayley Firth plenty to think about and she shares her thoughts here.

It is easy to think you know the tricks that fraudsters may play on you, but do you really know the difference between AI and reality?

As scams are ever evolving and changing to catch even the canniest of people, one that is extremely difficult and tests even the keenest of eyes is the use of Artificial Intelligence. Fraudsters can now put together fake photographs with the use of AI to look like a genuine photo. These fake generated images can be used to impersonate people, and they may create fake documents or identities.

Although it can be very hard to tell if a photo has been AI generated, we can look for signs to show if the photos look overly perfect or airbrushed in appearance. There may also be signs of malformation in their physical details, such as hands or little details that aren’t quite right and give it away.

Furthermore, scammers can now use voice cloning technology to replicate the sounds of people’s voices. This makes it extremely difficult to know who you are speaking to on the other end of the phone. It is often used to trick the victim into sending them money, with the victim believing that they are sending it to someone they know. They may create a sense of urgency and show signs of distress to trigger the recipient into quick action.

To protect yourself, it is recommended that you have a “safe word or a safe phrase” that only the real person would know, in order to verify the identity of the person you believe you are speaking to.

It is also a good idea to hang up and call them back using the number that you know is theirs, even if they still insist it is time critical. The more pressure applied, the more this can be seen as a red flag.

If in doubt, don’t do it! Stay alert, stay vigilant, stay protected.