Billions of Android and iPhone users issued warning over AI attacks

SMARTPHONE owners have been warned about artificial intelligence-powered technology that can scam you out of your money.

Such scams include artificial intelligence (AI) voice cloning, phishing ads, and deep fake imagery.

1

AI Voice cloning

Voice cloning scams are similar to phishing attacks except that it uses AI to replicate someone’s voice.

Most commonly, the goal is to steal a user’s banking information, identity, or passwords.

In a voice clone attack, threat actors may trick a parent into believing their children have been kidnapped.

Or they may pretend to be someone’s family member and ask them to send money.

After bad actors locate a target, they will typically find a short video clip of their voice on social media and use AI to impersonate it.

Phishing ads

A number of bad actors are tricking ChatGPT users into downloading malware-laden apps onto their devices.

These apps can attack your phone and infiltrate your data – including your banking accounts.

Meta reported last month that it discovered at least ten such dangerous software since March.

In some instances, the malware even provided users with real ChatGPT artificial intelligence functions along with malicious files.

“From a bad actor’s perspective, ChatGPT is the new crypto,” said Guy Rosen, Meta’s chief information security officer.

For this reason, it’s important to always make sure whatever you are downloading is legitimate.

You should also avoid clicking on unknown software ads or links in suspicious emails/text messages.

DEEP FAKES

Deep fakes are synthetic media in which a person’s face in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else’s.

Criminals have been using the new technology to blackmail and extort victims out of their money.

For example, some threat actors insert people’s faces into porn content and then demand ransom via fake apps.

There aren’t any ways to fully protect yourself against becoming a victim of deepfakes, but there are steps you can take.

You can report any deep fakes of yourself to the FTC as well as limit the number of posts you share of yourself on the internet.

It’s also advised to keep your social media accounts private and only accept people you know and trust.