Don’t say ‘hello’ first on silent calls — experts warn it may help AI clone your voice
By the time you end the call, your voice might've already been stolen by scammers
We all have done it: picked up an unknown call, offered a few hellos, and when nobody answered, hung up and went about our day without a second thought. It feels like a minor annoyance or a glitch, but that's not what's actually happening. On the contrary, you're exactly where the scammers want you, as reported by KTLA 5 on April 10. That's because these calls are designed in such a way that they don't need to say anything — just your voice.
"Hello, who's this? Hello, who's this? And after 15 seconds, they hang up. They are actually probably gathering voice. They know your phone number. They have your data, and they're storing it together," says tech expert Alex Oberg. These calls are actually biometric harvesting sessions where artificial intelligence listens to your voice just long enough to capture the unique pitch and rhythm. By the time you cut the call, your voice might've already been stolen by scammers.
This gives scammers more than enough information about you for them to stitch together a digital identity, clone your voice, and pass it on to other criminal gangs to bypass security. That is why experts such as Oberg have been spreading information regarding this issue. Now you might be wondering what the solution is. Well, that's pretty simple: don't pick up calls from unknown numbers or hang up immediately when you don't hear a voice from the other end.
As of now, that's perhaps the only way to not fall prey to such scams. Just earlier this month, the FBI reported that scams involving AI in general accounted for almost $893 million in losses across the country. However, that's not even the worst part, as researchers expect this number to go up to a whopping $40 billion by 2027. That's why U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan urged the government to look into this matter and suggested that the Senate help Americans from these financial losses by strengthening scam prevention. She has opened investigations into the roles that AI companies, federal agencies, satellite internet providers, and online dating platforms have in protecting Americans from criminal fraud.
Nonetheless, while the government continues to work in that direction, a few citizens seem to have clocked in the solution, as the experts pointed out. "I never answer my phone. Everything goes to voicemail. Scammers hang up immediately, and then I block that number," @Droogs wrote. Meanwhile, @925vMTB wants strict laws regarding such scammers. "Maybe if there were actual consequences for doing this, it wouldn't be a problem," they wrote.
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