Learning to spot the AI phone scammers

Scam phone calls are a fact of life these days, whether it’s home improvement grants or someone pretending to be your bank. UK mobile network O2 recently blocked 50 million dodgy calls monthly using its defense system.

But now they’re often being made using AI rather than real people in distant call centers. Naveed Janmohamed, CEO and founder of the AI research assistant Anara, says learning to spot artificial voices during phone calls might save thousands of people from sophisticated cons that have already stolen millions from unsuspecting consumers.

Voice-cloning tools now pump out startlingly real sounding fake calls at costs lower than ever. Criminal gangs which once lacked access to advanced tech can now afford these sophisticated tools, dramatically increasing the threat to ordinary people.

"The technology behind these scams has developed very quickly," Janmohamed explains. "Today's AI needs just seconds of your voice to create convincing clones, letting criminals pose as your bank or tax office without setting off alarm bells."

But there are clues that a voice is an AI-generated fake. The top three giveaways are: strange pauses before the caller answers questions, background noise that suddenly arrives or disappears, and if the caller struggles to respond naturally to unexpected questions you throw at them.

"When something sounds off about a call discussing your money or asking for personal details it almost certainly is -- hang up immediately," says Janmohamed.

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Pressure tactics are also a major red flag no one should ignore -- whether the caller is AI or real. "Watch out for callers rushing you to make decisions on the spot or who avoid answering straight questions when you try to check who they really are," Janmohamed adds. "Those behaviors almost always mean you're dealing with cons and not legitimate staff."

Victims often stay quiet. They feel humiliated after being duped or believe authorities won't take their case seriously. However, scammers rely on this shame to keep victims silent while they continue operating without fear of getting caught. It’s therefore always worth reporting scams, in the US you can report via the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center and the UK you can use Action Fraud.

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