In the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the concept of phishing and other cybersecurity threats has evolved by leaps and bounds. With threats posing risks to various elements like personal identity, security and finances — the misuse of AI agents, bots and services has now become a issue that we all have to deal with. In an effort to highlight the impact of such threats alongside practices that — as responsible tech users — one can adopt, here are five major scams that are surging in India currently as we give you the deets on how to protect yourselves and your loved ones from them.
Digital Arrest Video Calls
Over the last few years, this has been one of the most common scams occurring across the country. Posing as or impersonating officials from law enforcement agencies, often using AI deepfakes, scammers design a call that often manipulates victims into getting lured onto a video call using fear, deceit and intimidation. Threats of arrest and freezing bank accounts are common ways to instill panic. Their modus operandi includes using fake documents, fake videos or doctored arrest warrants to make a false claim. After coercing them with the aforementioned threat, victims are often asked to pay a fine or a deposit.
How to deal with it: The best way to avoid getting scammed is to spread awareness among your circle that Digital Arrest does not exist in India. Should you encounter such a call, immediately hang up.
AI Audio Cloning
This scam leaves people perplexed when a mere seconds-long audio message or audio from an Instagram reel or YouTube video ends up getting cloned using AI. They use voices of relatives and family members to call parents or grandparents via an unknown phone number, plunging them into a state of panic, posing as being involved in threats like accidents, arrests or medical crises. They then convincingly demand a money transfer by means of UPI transfer.
How to deal with it: A good way to combat this would be to have a safe word known only within the family to best determine the genuineness of the voice. Furthermore, call the family member through their saved contact before acting on such calls.
AI Agent Fraud
Advisories and notifications from bodies like CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) and India’s Ministry of Home Affairs — as recently as earlier this month — advised banks, NBFCs and payment aggregators to beware of a new scam that involves the deployment of AI agents by cyber criminals to carry out micro-testing of compromised bank accounts before draining them of large amounts.
How to deal with it: A helpful way to stay ahead of this scam would be to enable instant push and SMS alerts for even `1 debit or credit transaction, as that is often the amount received during the micro-testing by these agents. The next step would be to immediately halt your card or UPI services in order to report and deal with this new issue.
Courier Scams
IVR and AI voice bots are increasingly being used by scammers to pose as delivery or executive professionals from big courier companies, claiming the victim’s packages are on hold during transit. These often use claims of discovering packages that are labelled in a receiver’s name corresponding with the victim and then intimidate them further with a ‘call transfer’ to a deepfaked narcotics and customs official in order to extort money.
How to deal with it: The best way to protect your loved ones from this scam is to help them understand that courier companies do not ‘connect’ customers to such officials directly over the phone. It is also imperative to let them know to check tracking and order details directly from the official websites of the purchases or the courier agency’s website.
Fake Portals
Cyber criminals have begun using AI to build fake websites that clone or imitate official ticket booking portals for train bookings, temple visits, pilgrimage trips or even concert tickets. Imitating official pages like IRCTC Tatkal bookings, these scammers employ AI bots that collect UPI payments and ID details; and conduct transactions that cannot be traced later.
How to deal with it: Inform your household to double-check these domains, as official government and trust portals end with ‘.gov.in’ or ‘.nic.in’ Furthermore, booking tickets through authorised ticketing partners reduces the scope of such threats online.