The Prime Minister of Thailand denounces an attempted scam with the voice of another Asian leader falsified with artificial intelligence

The Prime Minister of Thailand, Paethongtarn Shinawatra, denounced this Wednesday an attempted scam through a phone call and mobile messaging services, in which the attackers imitated the voice of a Southeast Asian president with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). ). Shinawatra explained that he received voice notes on his mobile phone in which the scammers posed as the president of a neighboring country – which he preferred not to specify -, who asked about a donation and claimed that Thailand was the only country in the region. who had not contributed.

“The scammers used artificial intelligence to imitate the leader’s voice. In the audio, the supposed dignitary asked me how I was and mentioned that they wanted to work together,” Shinawatra explained in statements to the Thai public channel Thai PBS.

The next day, he said, without specifying the date, he saw a missed call from the scammers, who then sent him the coordinates to make a bank transfer to a third country. The prime minister believes that those who tried to deceive her obtained her telephone number through other people who had her contact information, although she did not say anything about a possible investigation in this regard.

Scams that use artificial intelligence to impersonate the voices of family members and acquaintances, known as audio ‘deepfakes’, are no longer exclusive to sophisticated attacks and are also beginning to target ordinary people, as reported by elDiario.es. Cybercriminals use these techniques to trick their victims by posing as someone they trust and requesting transfers of money or sensitive information.

There have already been cases in Spain. Security forces, such as the Mossos d’Esquadra and the National Cybersecurity Institute (Incibe), have detected an increase in these cases and warn about the danger of these scams. They recommend being wary of suspicious calls and verifying the identity of the interlocutor before taking any action that involves personal or financial data.