CAUT!ONARY CALL

BY MELANIE ROBITAILLE, SR. STAFF WRITER & GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Years ago, a new privacy policy was adopted across North America, that approved the collection, storage, and security around a user’s biometrics. Some thought it odd for benign businesses to implement these sorts of safety measures, but now we may know why.

Today biometrics are now used in a variety of ways for user authentication. Think about your fingerprint to open a car door, or facial recognition to unlock your smart device. There’s even voice recognition with certain telecom companies and banking institutions. But with technology augmenting virtually everything these days, we’re starting to see the unfortunate, sinister side of an unadulterated idea. AI deep fake exploits have come calling for the general public.

We’ve all picked up the phone to one of those obvious fraud calls right, but what about that of a loved one in distress? This is the voice of the new scam thanks to an ever-growing repository of recorded online video content and dozens of apps and sites capable of voice cloning.

“What traditionally took hours or even days…has transformed the ability to now clone voices within minutes with incredible accuracy,” cautioned Associate Broker, Shawn Jaryno, with EXIT on the Hudson Realty in a recent EXIT Realty blog post. “The real estate industry needs to be all hands on deck for the inevitability when these scams arrive at the doorstep of brokers and agents.”

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported 2.4 million frauds in 2022, with imposter scams taking their number one spot in their top five frauds, stating, “Scammers contacting people on social or by phone led to the biggest losses.”

Because real estate professionals spend a vast amount of time marketing in videos on social media, these platforms are prime harvesting grounds for usable samples, which as it turns out, need not be very large or long for replication. LinkedIn recently published their Protect Yourself from AI Voice-Cloning Scams article, which outlines several tips to help safeguard professionals against these kinds of attacks. Shawn recommends getting ahead of this issue now by developing procedural policies in your office and with your agents to deal with voice cloning scams.

Agents and brokers are already all too familiar with the warnings about wire fraud and text message scams. Unfortunately, too many times the warnings are not adhered to until after the attack has taken place successfully.

TOP TIPS TO SAFEGUARD AGAINST ATTACKS

1. USE CAUTION AND VERIFICATION

Be aware of the number calling you (scammers often use unknown or overseas numbers) and verify that it’s the person calling you by texting them or asking questions only they would know, for example a safe word.

2. LISTEN CAREFULLY

Unnatural pauses, robotic speech patterns, and unusual pronunciations, are all good indicators of a possible voice cloning scam.

3. METHOD OF PAYMENT

Every scammer looks for monetary benefit, and most often by way of untraceable means, so be wary of demands for payment by gift cards or cryptocurrencies.

4. PRIVACY SETTINGS

Think about changing your social profiles to private instead of public where possible and inviting your clients or prospects to like and follow you.

Read more of Shawn's tips on dealing with voice cloning scams at the brokerage level on EXIT’s realestateindustryleaders.com blog.