Raise your hands and feet if you have ever received a phone call from an unknown number and when you pick up the caller goes silent. I personally have been receiving calls like this almost every day for the past 6 months. Now the reason for these “silent calls” has finally been revealed by the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM).
According to Cheras Commercial Crime Investigation Department Officer, Inspector Tai Yong Keong – criminals wait for the recipient of the call to speak and then record their voice. Through artificial intelligence (AI) software, the recorded voice will then be cloned to make scam calls to family or close relatives. The cloned voice will ask for help, supposedly being kidnapped or in an emergency situation. To save them, family members need to transfer money to the account number provided immediately.
This is the next evolution of the identity theft scam that previously sent texts using SMS or WhatsApp for the same purpose. While there have been no reports of AI-based voice cloning tactics successfully deceiving family members, people are still being urged to be cautious when picking up calls from unknown numbers.
The Google Pixel has a Call Screen feature that filters out scam calls like this using Gemini. Unfortunately, this feature is only available on devices in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, Ireland, Italy, and Spain.