Voice Cloning Scams

[Krystina Ferraris]

Adding here that some years ago a guy I was friend with dropped enough info about his rl that I was literally able to find him through LinkedIn and a Google search in less than 10 minutes.

I told him just to warn him that it wasn’t a good idea to go around telling random people this stuff.

I can only imagine what you can do with voice, cam footage and pictures showing your face 🙈

[Love Zhaoying]

10 minutes ago, Krystina Ferraris said:

Adding here that some years ago a guy I was friend with dropped enough info about his rl that I was literally able to find him through LinkedIn and a Google search in less than 10 minutes.

I told him just to warn him that it wasn’t a good idea to go around telling random people this stuff.

I can only imagine what you can do with voice, cam footage and pictures showing your face 🙈

I think, that one day (possibly after I retire from my RL job), I will be comfortable with RL info being here. Because for one thing, I will probably have a shared YouTube RL / SL presence.

I know several people who either "are" or "were" on the Forums that had no trouble showing their RL face and even their identity so far as I know (David was one, I forget the rest of his name).

[Ayashe Ninetails]

35 minutes ago, Krystina Ferraris said:

Voice verifying with some rando exposes enough of your RL to allow those with unsavoury intentions to get enough info. Some places ask that along with voice verification, you also submit a picture holding a sign with a specific phrase on it or cam with the person.

Why anyone would do that or think it’s a great idea is beyond me, but to each their own.

Not a chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaance! I won't even do that (submit selfies & driver's license for ID verification) with freelance work. I know of some places that ask for it or worse - jump on a video call (Upwork is one, and far, far, far lesser known crowdsourcing platforms as well), but nah fam. I don't know you like that!

[Love Zhaoying]

1 minute ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Not a chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaance! I won't even do that (submit selfies & driver's license for ID verification) with freelance work. I know of some places that ask for it or worse - jump on a video call (Upwork is one, and far, far, far lesser known crowdsourcing platforms as well), but nah fam. I don't know you like that!

Giving anyone your image is a good way for it to end up on some "stock photo" site, then be used in some multi-million $ ad campaign without you getting any credit or recognition!

[Ayashe Ninetails]

Just now, Love Zhaoying said:

Giving anyone your image is a good way for it to end up on some "stock photo" site, then be used in some multi-million $ ad campaign without you getting any credit or recognition!

That's the least of my concerns. Winding up in a national face recognition database is more likely. Isn't that what the whole IRS ID me kerfuffle was over?

That's a bit off-topic, of course, but I wouldn't be surprised if they turned to voice verification since people kicked up a whole stink about it. 😏

I don't trust any of that stuff. If you're paying me a thousand dollars an hour, then we can talk about verifying anything (and that includes SL - zero chance I'm hopping on voice to verify my gender for no good reason).

[Love Zhaoying]

3 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

If you're paying me a thousand dollars an hour

I could "affort" a couple minutes, at $16.67..

What if your SL avatar image (that you worked really hard on) became a stock photo? Would you be OK with that?

I can go off-topic on my topic, so long as it's topical!

[InnerCity Elf]

9 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

 

And then there is this..

When doing business on the phone with many different types of companies, you get asked "this call is being recorded etc." and at some point if you are agreeing to some "service" during the call, they record your voice "agreement" to the service (with its recurring fees, etc.).  I'm not saying those recordings are / can be abused, just that there is a natural connection between the concepts of your voice being "used for something".

I never agree, but I don't trust that it's not recorded either way, and if by accident, incompetent coders, etc. 

[SorachaNicEoghain]

@Love Zhaoying have you seen this? https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65309313

[Love Zhaoying]

32 minutes ago, SorachaNicEoghain said:

@Love Zhaoying have you seen this? https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65309313

No, thanks!

 

[Amanda Crisp]

The machine voice service I am familiar with needs about 90 seconds of “clean” Subject Sample to begin modeling with. The bigger the sample, the better the result will be.

This is useful for adding a variety of Voices to games, or to add narration to training videos or create radio spots (I use this for the latter two).

This service could well be used for nefarious purposes, but I have an example of one non-nefarious one 🙂

My voicemail responder message has not changed in some years, since a stroke impaired my ability to speak. About a month ago, I had the brilliant idea to upload an old sample of my pre-stroke voice ( from a training program I narrated ) and run a new “answer” message with my machine re-generated voice.

I’m BACK to having frequently-updated (snarky) voicemail messages and I would be lying if I said that this did not make me happy 🙂

I trust Human Nature to abuse any useful thing it can, but in the interim I am enjoying having that little bit of *me* back.

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by Amanda Crisp
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[belindacarson]

Just practice with Michael Winslow, that world famous voice coach.

[Love Zhaoying]

I am reminded this morning of a series of YouTube AI-generated movie clips, where one or more character (usually female) has been replaced with one having both Arnold Schwarzenegger's face and voice. Deep Fakes.

[SorachaNicEoghain]

2 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I am reminded this morning of a series of YouTube AI-generated movie clips, where one or more character (usually female) has been replaced with one having both Arnold Schwarzenegger's face and voice. Deep Fakes.

I love these so much 🤣

[EliseAnne85]

19 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

20 hours ago, EliseAnne85 said:

Are you suggesting that perhaps voice cloning is originating from online games in general?  

No.

It's interesting to note that your news story did not comment on where the voice sampling is occurring.

So many news stories are like that.  They give you half a story.  

[Love Zhaoying]

54 minutes ago, EliseAnne85 said:

It's interesting to note that your news story did not comment on where the voice sampling is occurring.

So many news stories are like that.  They give you half a story.  

I think, when you add in the AI factor - "modern" voice clones, they only need a very small sample. So, it could come from anywhere.

Would you like me to search the news stories until I find one that mentions a suspected source? I can do that!

I was just too lazy before to keep searching until I found the original BBC story I heard on the radio (since it did not popup as new in the Google search).

Videos was not my initial preference.

Tell ya what - I'll click "submit" on this reply and search a little.

[Love Zhaoying]

I thought this was pretty specific, quote: 

"Most people in the modern age have some form of an online identity and have probably spoken in some way in some aspect that's been recorded, especially if you're under the age of 25," futurist and WAYE founder Sinead Bovell said. "So this becomes very, very challenging as we move into a future where we do have these AI generators or synthetic audio when it comes to verification and validation."

"Experts caution that anyone with the right software can clone voices in just a matter of seconds."

Source: https://abc7news.com/ai-voice-generator-artificial-intelligence-kidnapping-scam-detector/13122645/

I mean, how specific do you want? Quote:

The story of DeStefano’s ordeal arrived less than a month after the Federal Trade Commission issued its own warning against the proliferating con artist ploy. “Artificial intelligence is no longer a far-fetched idea out of a sci-fi movie. We’re living with it, here and now,” the FTC said in its consumer alert, adding that all a scammer now needs is a “short audio clip” of someone’s voice to recreate their tone and inflections. Often, this source material can be easily obtained via social media content. According to Kambhampati, the clip can be as short as three seconds, and still produce convincing enough results to fool unsuspecting victims.

Source:

https://www.popsci.com/technology/ai-vocal-clone-kidnapping/

I am trying to post articles about the "same story" - which all the stories seem to mention "social media".  So, they could be getting it from Facebook or TikTok videos, for instance.

Let me know if you want more, or I can search for "more specific" information!

[EliseAnne85]

2 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

So, they could be getting it from Facebook or TikTok videos, for instance.

Yeah, as I was reading your post, I was thinking the above, exactly.  

Thanks for sharing that!

[Love Zhaoying]

Another example, quote: 

"All [the scammer] needs is a short audio clip of your family member's voice — which he could get from content posted online — and a voice-cloning program," the commission warned. "When the scammer calls you, he'll sound just like your loved one."

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/22/1165448073/voice-clones-ai-scams-ftc

I think that is telling a lot more than "half the story".  It means ANYWHERE online.

[Love Zhaoying]

Here's a great one, it says they could be recording your voice when you speak if you answer the phone. 

Edited to add: This is also "more than just half the story"...

That example is something discussed earlier in this thread, it's just the first article I found on it. Quote:

If you answer a phone call from an unknown number, let the caller speak first. Whoever is on the other end of the line could be recording snippets of your voice — and later using it to impersonate you in a very convincing manner. 

That's according to the Federal Trade Commission, which is warning consumers to beware of scam artists who are secretly recording people's voices in order to later pose as them and ask victims' relatives for money. 

Source:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ai-scam-voice-cloning-rising/

Edited April 20, 2023 by Love Zhaoying

[Ayashe Ninetails]

I knew going read-only mode on social media would benefit me in the end. 😄

[Istelathis]

For protection, I think I will just filter my voice to Bobcat whenever I talk on the phone, or if for some reason I want to do voice in SL.  I mean if scammers are going to use it to scam people with, we may as well use it as well.