How to spot deepfakes and safeguard your family against high-tech scams

Imagine getting a call from a loved one terrified, desperate, begging for help. But what if that voice wasn’t real?

Scammers now use powerful AI voice-cloning apps to steal voices or mimic someone you trust to pull off convincing scams.

Consumer Reports investigates the rise of deepfakes, revealing how these high-tech scams work and what you can do right now to protect yourself and your family.

Deepfake technology is becoming more convincing every day.

Ben Colman, Co-founder and CEO of Reality Defender, a deep-fake detection company, says it’s the number one digital risk people should be worried about.

He says, “Over the last few years, there’s been an explosion of calls claiming that we have your daughter. She’s in trouble, send money, or else. Well, what’s happened recently is the call comes in and says, we are your daughter; hi, I’m your daughter. I’m in trouble, send money right now.”

So, what exactly is a deepfake, and how does it work?

A deepfake is taking anyone’s likeness, whether it’s their face, a single image from LinkedIn or online, or a few seconds of audio, and using a pre-trained model to replicate their likeness to make them say or do anything you want.

The deepfakes are so advanced it’s even hard for experts to tell the difference. And what’s worse, there are no federal laws to stop someone from cloning your voice without your permission.

Consumer Reports reviewed six popular voice cloning apps, uncovering a troubling trend. Four of the six apps had no meaningful way to ensure that the user had the original speaker’s consent to voice clone them. The two other apps were better and had more safeguards, but found ways around them.

While it’s practically impossible to erase your digital footprint, CR says there are some steps you can take to protect yourself:

The first thing is knowing that deep fake scams like this exist.

The second thing is using two-factor authentication on all of your financial accounts. That means having an extra security feature on your smartphone device that requires you to input a security code or respond to an email when trying to gain access to your bank accounts.

Third, be wary of calls, texts, or emails that ask for your personal financial information or data.

And finally, do a gut check. Does what you’re hearing or seeing make sense? By default, you should not believe anything you see online. You should always follow standard common sense.