Voice Messages Are on The Rise and Fraudsters are Using Them To Their Advantage 

Voice messages and voice notes have become increasingly popular, offering convenience and a personal touch to digital communication. However, this rise in voice message usage has also opened a new frontier for cybercriminals. Fraudsters are exploiting voice messages, using advanced AI technologies to create convincing deepfake audio, posing significant threats to both individuals and organizations. This trend underscores the urgent need for robust solutions to secure voice channels and authentication methods. ValidSoft is at the forefront of this fight, dedicated to protecting genuine human voices from all forms of fraud, particularly against AI-generated deepfake audio.

The Growing Threat of Voice Message Exploitation

Voice messages are rapidly becoming a preferred mode of communication, especially among younger generations. According to recent studies, “84% of Gen Z users utilize voice messages”, highlighting a significant shift towards audio communication​ This growing trend is not just about convenience; it is also about the immersive and personal experience that voice messages provide. However, this very appeal makes them an attractive target for cybercriminals.

How Cybercriminals Exploit Voice Messages

The process of exploiting voice messages begins with the increasing availability of advanced AI tools that can create realistic deepfake audio. Cybercriminals leverage these tools to generate fake voice messages that sound remarkably like the intended target. Here’s a detailed look at how they exploit this vulnerability:

1. Impersonation of Trusted Individuals: Fraudsters use deepfake technology to mimic the voices of trusted individuals such as executives, financial officers, or family members. For instance, in the Arup case, fraudsters used deepfake audio to impersonate the company’s UK-based CFO, leading to significant financial loss​​. This type of attack exploits the trust placed in familiar voices, making it easier to deceive the victim into taking harmful actions.
2. Social Engineering Attacks: By sending a voice message that sounds like a trusted person, cybercriminals can manipulate recipients into divulging sensitive information or transferring money. These messages often carry a sense of urgency, exploiting the natural tendency to respond quickly to urgent requests from known contacts.
3. Account Takeovers: Voice messages can be used in conjunction with other techniques such as SIM-swap attacks. By impersonating someone within a trusted network, fraudsters can trick service providers into transferring control of phone numbers, allowing them access to two-factor authentication codes and sensitive accounts.
4. Spreading Misinformation and Manipulating Events: Beyond financial fraud, deepfake voice messages can be used to spread misinformation, manipulate political events, or even disrupt judicial processes by creating fake evidence​​. The realism of AI-generated voices makes it difficult for recipients to discern between legitimate and fraudulent communications.

The Ease of Creating AI Audio Deepfakes

The barrier to creating convincing deepfake audio has dramatically lowered. Where once it required extensive scripting and high-quality recordings, now only a few seconds of voice data are sufficient. Platforms that previously needed 20 minutes of audio can now produce a deepfake with just a snippet, enabling even novice cybercriminals to generate believable fakes​. This ease of creation, combined with the high trust in voice messages, significantly increases the risk of exploitation.

ValidSoft’s Voice Verity™: A Solution to Deepfake Audio Threats

In response to this growing threat, ValidSoft has developed a cutting-edge solution to detect and prevent deepfake audio attacks. Voice Verity™, our patented AI-based deepfake audio detection technology, is at the forefront of cybersecurity innovation. This solution is designed to monitor every call, voice message, or social media upload for signs of generative AI deepfake audio, computer-generated speech, and robocalls. Voice Verity™ operates seamlessly and invisibly, providing enhanced security for voice & voice messaging channels without disrupting the user experience. It offers real-time and offline processing capabilities, ensuring high accuracy in detecting synthetic audio.

Voice Verity™ is built on years of research and expertise in speech science, signal processing, and voice biometrics. This technology provides highly accurate detection of deepfake audio, leveraging advanced deep neural networks and signal processing techniques. It can process audio in real-time or as a retrospective batch process, offering flexibility in deployment.

Furthermore, Voice Verity™ is language and dialect agnostic, capable of detecting deepfakes across various languages, dialects, and idiolects, making it a globally applicable solution. Fully compliant with GDPR, CCPA, BIPA, and other major privacy frameworks, Voice Verity™ requires no user enrolment and ensures that no personal data is stored, thereby ensuring 100% privacy compliance. Available for On-Premise, Private Cloud, Public Cloud, SaaS and Hosted deployments, Voice Verity™ is built for rapid deployment and can be deployed independently or integrated with existing voice biometric systems to provide a critical additional layer of security​.

The threat posed by deepfake audio is real and rapidly evolving. As cybercriminals continue to exploit advancements in AI to create convincing fake audio, the need for robust detection and prevention measures becomes more critical. ValidSoft’s Voice Verity™ offers a comprehensive solution to this emerging threat, ensuring that voice communications remain secure and trustworthy. By staying ahead of the curve with continuous research and development, ValidSoft guarantees not just security but peace of mind in an increasingly uncertain digital world. Protecting voices from fraud, identity theft, and other malicious activities is our mission, and Voice Verity™ is the cutting-edge solution ready to be deployed today to safeguard your communications and ensure truth, trust, and integrity in every vocal interaction.