In the first quarter of this year, the Fraud Helpdesk has already received nearly 10,000 reports of fake phone calls. That is more than three times as many as in the same period the year before. AI has made this form of fraud much easier for malicious people.
The Fraud Help Desk website gives the example of a fake phone call from Amazon. A victim is called and presented with a choice menu asking whether to confirm or cancel an iPhone 15 order. The victim is then transferred to someone pretending to be an Amazon employee. This "employee" asks the victim to install an app on the computer to cancel the order. In reality, this gives the fraudsters access to the victim's computer. Once successful, they steal money from the victim's bank account.
Previously, this required a fraudster to have the necessary technical knowledge. Moreover, cloning a voice took a long time. Nowadays, it is a cheap form of scam with little risk for the perpetrator. Tanya Wijngaarde of the Fraude Helpdesk points out that help desk fraud is also common, with a malicious person posing as a help desk employee of Microsoft or Netflix, for example. Many reports also come in about bank help desk fraud from a so-called financial institution or payment service, according to Wijngaarde.
Click here for the Fraud Help Desk message.
