Scammers have learned to fake phone numbers and voices of people the victim trusts. Familiar numbers and photos may appear on the screen, and the conversation starts quite normally. The deception can be revealed by a request to provide an SMS code, transfer money, install an application, or follow a link, warned Artem Sheikin, Deputy Chairman of the Council for the Development of the Digital Economy under the Federation Council.
According to him, the scheme is designed to make a person immediately trust the caller. When the number and photo of a loved one appear on the screen, and a familiar voice is heard on the phone, the need to additionally verify the interlocutor usually does not even arise.
The scammer may start the conversation with a completely ordinary question: for example, asking where the person is now or what their plans are for tomorrow. This way, the attackers first create the feeling of a real conversation and only then move on to the main request.
Then an "unusual request" appears – most often, under a convincing pretext, the person is asked to provide an SMS code. By this point, trust has already been established, so a demand that would immediately arouse suspicion when calling from an unknown number may seem quite normal. Sometimes a random trifle gives away the scammer.
In one such case, the scammer was given away by the phrase "the code will come to your number." A loved one would not suddenly address the interlocutor formally, so here the attackers' scheme was interrupted. However, this was a random error that may not be repeated with another user. As speech synthesis technologies improve, it will be more difficult to distinguish a fake voice by intonation or individual inaccuracies.
Therefore, during a suspicious call, it is not necessary to try to understand exactly what the scammer used: number spoofing, voice recording, or artificial intelligence. It is much more important to see what exactly they want from you.
If the conversation unexpectedly comes down to a bank code, money transfer, application installation, or following a link, Sheikin advises to immediately end the call and independently contact the loved one, for example, via messenger.
For relatives and friends, you can come up with a secret phrase or question in advance, the answer to which cannot be found on social networks. But the main rule remains the same: no one should be told codes from messages – even if a familiar number is displayed on the screen, and the voice on the phone seems to be the voice of a loved one.