RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – Con artists are always trying to figure out new ways to defraud you without you getting wise to their scams, and now they’re getting help from artificial intelligence.
Scammers are misusing a new piece of tech intelligence that comes right on your phone.
Many of us let suspected scam calls with weird caller IDs just go to voicemail, but AI is changing that.
A new feature Apple created for its iOS17 update allows a call going to voicemail to be displayed, in real-time, on your screen. It’s called Live Voicemail.
“You see a transcript and you have to make a decision based on the transcription,” said Alex Quilici of YouMail. “Is this really my bank? Is this really my insurance company? Is it really FedEx?”
“It’s very hard to do from a transcript. And scammers are taking advantage of that,” he said.
A study by EZ Texting says 90% of all mobile users open and read text messages within the first 30 minutes of receipt, and experts say a Live Voicemail transcript acts the same way.
“You’re going to feel a sense of urgency,” said Quilici.
Although live voicemail is there by default, you can turn it off in your settings, but it’s just the latest step in AI that scammers are embracing–things like deep fakes or voice cloning.
As these things become more prevalent, Consumer Investigator Steve Sbraccia asked Quilici what we do about AI fakery.
“I think a couple of things,” he said. “One is we have to become a lot less trusting, and that’s a first step but it’s actually a really important one.
“A few years ago, we had to stop trusting the caller ID on the phone because people were faking it,” he said.
Be skeptical of everything you see, hear and read on your phone. Verify everything before reacting.
How do you verify?
Independently look up the phone numbers of those calling or messaging you. Check with organizations directly. It’s the new normal to avoid scams.
