By Shawn Jaryno, Associate Broker, EXIT on the Hudson Realty, NJ
The rise of Artificial Intelligence voice cloning into the mainstream gives rise to those who would use the technology for nefarious purposes. The real estate industry needs to be all hands on deck for the inevitability that these scams will arrive at the doorstep of brokers and agents. What makes voice cloning so dangerous is in the actual name of the technology, the literal cloning of a person’s voice. The speed of AI learning has transformed what traditionally took hours or even days to clone a voice and has transformed the ability to now clone voices within minutes with incredible accuracy.
Any person with access to the internet can easily find a dozen sites to assist with voice cloning, find thousands of examples of voice cloning, samples of celebrity voice cloning, and more.
Technology is no different from any other tool created by humans. A hammer is a great tool to drive a nail into wood, for example, but a hammer can also be used as a weapon to cause harm if placed in the wrong hands. Unfortunately, the battlefield of technology is littered with millions of victims and the race to develop defense mechanisms is typically accomplished after an attack happens.
The FTC reported in March 2023 that scammers have enhanced the voice scam through AI Voice Cloning. The original social engineering scam technique relies heavily on creating an emergency, inducing panic and fear to cause a person to react without thinking because of the urgency created. One way a person can thwart the scam is to ask to speak with the person they claim is in trouble.
Now, scammers are using AI Voice Cloning to mimic the supposed troubled person’s voice. The sample size needed to generate this cloned voice is minimal. Social media sites are ripe for harvesting a person’s voice sample. One consistent feature of the scam is usually in how they want you, the victim, to help. The scammers request payments that go through untraceable methods such as gift cards, cryptocurrency, or some other untraceable method.
The first best defense is, don’t believe the voice is the real person and disconnect the call. Contact the person via a phone number you know is theirs, if this fails, contact other people you know the person knows. To assist in developing a defensive posture against these scams, visit the FTC website for steps you can take.
Real estate brokers and agents need to be prepared that this scam will come to the industry. Agents and brokers are already all too familiar with the warnings about wire fraud scams and text message scams, for example. Unfortunately, too many times the warnings are not adhered to until after the attack has taken place successfully.
Brokers should consider developing policies and training on handling phone calls that appear to be from an internal person within the company that seems suspicious, always remembering phone numbers can be easily spoofed making caller ID systems unreliable. The policy could include suggestions that if a call seems suspicious, the employee or agent should use the known numbers of the person in question and reach out to them directly. If this is not possible, the employee or agent should escalate to a manager.
Humans have unique characteristics that are theirs and theirs alone, that can be used to help thwart various types of attacks. Characteristics such as how one types, fingerprints, and voice are some of these unique characteristics. Brokers might consider investing in voice biometric options and systems to detect if a voice is human and to determine if it is the person they claim to be. If you feel the urge to dive into voice biometric options, you can visit Google Scholar and do a search for “voice biometric systems” and begin your biometric journey.
For real estate agents, social media is a unique tool to promote themselves, but this tool can be exploited. One should expect that scammers will be on the lookout to harvest information about targets who are real estate agents. Agents typically post about closed deals, problem situations, and information about properties they list for sale. The trove of data is ripe for harvesting, and one can expect this to attract scammers who might build scams around a particular group of people. Collecting data and dissecting similarities are made even easier by AI. This could lead to scammers executing the scams faster than ever, leaving brokers and agents at a major disadvantage to react quickly to the scams to prevent damage.
The best defense posture is the one in which you remain aware that an attack can happen at any time. No system will be perfect, and false positives and false negatives will occur. The key to successful risk management is to reduce risk, evaluate, reduce risk further, and repeat until you cannot reduce the risk any further and accept that one cannot eliminate all risks.
Some brokers may not have the deep pockets to spend on fancy systems but this does not mean they cannot begin to take steps now.
A recent Trend Micro article discusses the scam and provides some insight into some of the steps that can be taken to help start the process of thwarting these types of scams, for example;
“Be cautious when receiving unexpected phone calls or messages.”
“If a call is suspicious, end the call and contact your friend/family member/colleague directly or call someone else who can confirm the situation.”
Remember, the best defense posture is the one that prepares for an attack. Educating yourself and your team now will be an important first step to protecting your business, employees, clients, and agents. Lastly, don’t forget to reinforce with additional training.
