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My parents' independent gas station in rural western Ohio (in a town of sub-1000 population, albeit on a state route that sees significant commuter traffic) was
by EvanAnderson 2y ago
My parents' independent gas station in rural western Ohio (in a town of sub-1000 population, albeit on a state route that sees significant commuter traffic) was targeted for a voice phishing scam over the last week. A caller left voice messages to multiple recipients (we're not sure how many, but it seems like at least double-digits) purporting to be the gas station and asking to settle-up unpaid bills via credit card over the phone. I didn't get to hear any of the callers, unfortunately. The call-back number they left wasn't the gas station's number, nor was the caller ID the gas station's number.
At first I felt like it was probably a small-time local scammer. Then I thought about how close we are to being able to run this entire scam using fully automated means (including voice assistant software and an LLM to talk to the callers, probably with a human in the loop for handing exceptions). I assume we'll see a rash of these kinds of scams targeting local businesses once the tool kits to run them become widely available.
The idea of building up the automation to run that scam sounds like fun. I wouldn't actually do it but somebody with fewer moral scruples absolutely will (or, rather, probably already has).
- anotheruser13 2y agoVoice phishers are looking for people to say "yes" and read numbers. Just say no!
- ksenzee 2y agoDoes that really even matter anymore, now that we can generate anyone’s voice saying anything?
- shkkmo 2y agoFollow the same steps for callers whose voice you don't recognize, before giving any financial information or reading any codes, call the person back using a verifiable good number.
- ksenzee 2y agoAll I’m saying is that if I were a scammer, I wouldn’t bother tricking someone into saying a specific thing. I’d just use gen AI. I’m definitely not arguing against “call the person back using a verifiable good number.” If everyone did that, we’d hear about a lot less fraud.
- cjrp 2y agoThere was a scam which targeted landlines, where the scammer would call and then keep the line open while you "hung up" (except you didn't) and you dialled the known number of your bank. The scammer simulates a ringing line, and then answers as your bank.
- nullc 2y agoThere are some idiotic banks now using "voice verification" such that capturing your voice may be of value to fraudsters. Unfortunately it's generally impossible to get your bank to stop using insecure authentication mechanisms except by changing banks, and good luck with that because it sure seems like practically all banks can eventually be convinced to give away your funds to someone with your personal information and the ability to sim swap you.
- IG_Semmelweiss 2y agoBetter yet. As the UK special forces say " When lost in the jungle, stop, and make yourself a tea " This applies when someone is telling you that you are in the process of being scammed.
- ge96 2y agoIt is neat like with Twilio you can produce that audio file for the voicemail with XML but yeah I have no drive to screw someone over myself