Scammers Exploit AI Call Center Software To Scale Up

A scam call center has been using Voiso, an AI-powered enterprise call center tool, to streamline their fraudulent operations, according to internal data obtained by 404 Media. An insider with access provided a cache of call center data showing exactly how the scam operations used the AI.

Voiso offers capabilities like automatically detecting voicemail, voice recognition, and an “AI Dialer” to maximize agent efficiency and scam compounds appear to be using that freely available software to scale up their own operations.

They Use The Software For Impersonation and Phishing Scams

Voiso touts it’s ability to reduce abandonment rates by 73%, and can detect a voicemail in less than 3.5 seconds making it an ideal tool for putting scammers in contact with their victims without sitting on the phone for hours.

The scammers signed up for the AI to help them in impersonation scams including cryptocurrency scams as well as recovery scams for prior victims of fraud.

Scammers Made 80,000 Calls With Voiso To Victims

An example of how the scam center used Voiso involved Bitfinex, a crypto currency exchange. They made over 80,000 calls to numerous countries including the U.K., Canada, and Australia over 18 months. Call recordings reveal the scammers targeted previous fraud victims, with one elderly man losing £20,000.

The scammers engaged in lengthy phone calls, some lasting about 30 minutes, and persistently targeted certain individuals. According to a spreadsheet, one victim was called more than 24 times within a span of two weeks, and the data shows that the person answered every single call.

The Scammers Targeted Prior Victims Of Fraud

Spreadsheets show scammers called some targets dozens of times, preying on vulnerable individuals already exploited by other criminals. “You are a very smart man, Mr. [REDACTED],” a scammer says in one call, as they posed as “International Fraud Watch” to gain the victim’s trust.

International Fraud Watch is a known scam highlighted by the FCA which used the domain frauddetect.io to scam victims out of money. It’s interesting to see that such a well known scam was using Artificial Intelligence agents to boost their scam.

Voiso Prohibits Scammers From Using Their Service

Voiso’s terms of service prohibit using their services for fraud, and the company told 404 Media it blocked the scammers’ account after the story broke.

“We have proactive and reactive measures to identify and remove customers who misuse our services from our platform. Our dedicated team uses advanced monitoring tools and algorithms to detect suspicious activities,” the email to 404 media explained.