AI-powered scams surge with deepfake voices and impersonation attacks
Financial institutions and tech companies are warning of a sharp increase in AI-driven scams using deepfake voices, cloned videos, and sophisticated impersonation tactics targeting households and businesses. Criminals are reportedly using AI to make scams more convincing and harder to detect, from 'Hi Mum' voice impersonation to fake business registrations and investment schemes.
What happened
Westpac is warning Australians of a surge in AI-driven scams, with criminals using deepfake voices and videos to create highly targeted impersonation attacks. Scammers are using AI-cloned voices, faces and video calls created from seconds of publicly available content to conduct 'Hi Mum' scams and business email compromise schemes.
Criminals are also registering fake companies to front sophisticated investment and payment scams, and exploiting social media platforms to distribute scams at scale through ads, posts and pages rather than suspicious messages.
Reported impact
The scams are targeting households and businesses, with particular focus on older Australians via fake community groups on social media and recruitment of money mules through fake job advertisements.
Westpac's Head of Fraud Prevention stated that scammers are deliberately making scams harder to spot and easier to spread, with criminals weaponising AI in their attempts to steal from Australians.
Index analysis
AI-driven scams are using voice cloning and deepfake video technology to impersonate trusted contacts and authority figures, making the scams more convincing and harder to detect than generic phishing attempts.
Governance controls
Westpac urged Australians to stay alert and verify any requests for money independently. Westpac stated that while banks continue to invest heavily in fraud and scam detection, social media companies must take greater responsibility for preventing scam content from spreading.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.