The Central Bank of Russia has released a video in which an anthropomorphic cat from the popular meme «Boo, scared?» acts as a telephone scammer. The video was published on November 22 in the official Telegram channel of the regulator. In it, the cat speaks in a human voice and uses phrases from the original meme, and then switches to techniques typical of fraudsters, trying to lure the viewer's SMS code under the pretext of transferring money to a «special secure account».
The cat, modeled using artificial intelligence, looks slightly unnatural, but this enhances the comic effect. At the beginning, he addresses the viewer with the phrases: «Boo, scared? Don't be afraid, I'm a friend, I won't hurt you.» Then the cat continues in the style of scammers: «Give me the code from the SMS. Let's transfer money to a special secure account. You don't want to? Why? Is something wrong?»
The video simulates a typical situation of a call from an unknown number, and viewers are reminded that the best way to deal with such calls is to immediately end the conversation. «Do not talk to suspicious people and hang up without talking,» the authors of the video emphasize.
The meme with the cat «Boo, scared?» became popular in early autumn, when the animation, created using artificial intelligence, began to spread actively on the Internet. In the original video, the cat offered the user to play staring contests and was surprised by his refusal, which spawned many variations of the meme on social networks.
Read materials on the topic:
AI fraudsters extort money using fabricated voices of SUSU management
Hacking Telegram with AI - how scammers in Russia use your voice and passport