How to protect yourself from voice clones

Criminals are constantly developing new and creative ways to steal your identity and money, and with rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI), voice cloning is a new concern that consumers need to be aware of.

This is no ordinary phone scam: the popularity of voice cloning has exploded in recent years as the capabilities of artificial intelligence continue to grow.

What is voice cloning and how can I be cheated?

Voice cloning is the digital copying of a person’s voice. Historically, voice cloning was achieved using voice recognition software, but thanks to AI technology, it can be done in seconds and is virtually indistinguishable from the real person’s digitally copied voice. Although voice cloning has many harmless uses, such as when a person has lost their voice, the technology is actually also widely used by malicious actors.

“Families and small businesses can become targets of fraudulent extortion attempts; and the voices of creative professionals, such as voice artists, can be misused in ways that could jeopardize the artist’s reputation and ability to earn money,” the Federal Trade Commission said in a statement.

Because many consumers and business owners have voicemails that could be recorded and duplicated as part of a voice cloning scam, financial expert Clark Howard advises people to protect themselves.

Voice clone fraud: How to protect yourself

And that’s exactly what a business owner and listener of the Clark Howard podcast wanted to know.

Many business owners have personalized messages on their voicemail messages that could be intercepted by scammers. Clark says using a third-party service could mitigate some of the risks.

“It’s a good idea to just take the precaution of not using your own voice for your work voicemail,” Clark advises.

“You can use a digitalized version like YouMail, which is very popular with businesses.”

If YouMail knows who is calling, it will even greet the caller via email, saying something like, “Hi Craig! Clark is unavailable.”

“Everything is digitized and not your own voice, so it’s useless to a scammer,” Clark says of YouMail’s voicemail service.

While YouMail offers several paid plans, it also has a free version that both Clark and I use.

Would you like to know more? Read our detailed review of YouMail.