Safe word: What is it and why do you need one?
ESET recommends pre-agreed family safe words to counter AI voice-clone scams such as virtual kidnapping, as one-in-four Americans report receiving deepfake calls.
ESET outlines how scammers use just seconds of audio scraped from social media or work content to create convincing voice clones, with a Hiya report finding one-in-four Americans received a deepfake voice call in the past 12 months. Common schemes include virtual kidnapping calls mixing cloned voices with sobbing and background noise. A pre-agreed, non-OSINT-discoverable safe word, plus callback verification via known numbers and 2FA, reduces success rates of these frauds.
- Hiya: one-in-four Americans received a deepfake voice call in the past 12 months.
- Scammers need only seconds of audio scraped from social media or work-related posts.
- Virtual kidnapping scams mix cloned voice, sobbing, and background noise to pressure relatives.
- Safe words must be unusual and not discoverable via OSINT like pets or sports teams.
- Verify via callbacks to known numbers; victims should contact banks and report to FTC/IC3.
- Vendors
- ESET
- Products
- Hiya
- Countries
- United States
From the original article
5 min read at welivesecurity.com
AI scams are now hyper-realistic. But there’s one simple way to see through them.
welivesecurity.com
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