You’re not going to believe this one!

On my blog, I’ve posted about phishing and, hopefully, you understand what that encompasses. (If not, click on the word “phishing” in the previous sentence and have a look at the posts I’ve done.) Now, there’s a new type of scam. It’s call “vishing.” It’s like phishing except it’s done with an AI (Artificial Intelligence) voice.

Let me give you a real example: a worker received a phone call from his boss who told him to transfer $243,000 into a certain account. Since the voice was clearly his boss, the employee moved the funds as instructed. Problem is, the voice on the other end of the phone wasn’t the boss – it was a vocal representation of the head honcho created by AI. The worker didn’t become suspicious until his “boss” called back two more times about the money. (If you want to read the full story, click HERE.)

While this was a business, do you see how easily this could be converted for use against home users? Your grandson calls claiming to need money. You’re going to send it to him because there’s no question the voice you are hearing is your grandson. Except, if it’s not him, you’re going to be out some money.

Whether you’re still working or sitting at home enjoying your retirement, there are ways you can keep yourself from getting scammed. How? Let me give you a few suggestions: 1) if someone calls and they say they are someone you know and they sound like them, interrupt the call and tell them you’ll call them back. (Or, just hang up on them and then call the person they claimed to be.) – 2) Tell them to call you back using Face Time or Skype or Google Hangouts so that you can see them; 3) Ask very specific questions that would be difficult for AI to answer but easy for the real person; 4) Don’t take any action out of fear or panic. Sit back, think things over and then go back to suggestion #1.