Mandarin-speaking community members voice deepfake

Criminals are increasingly utilizing AI voice cloning technology to impersonate doctors, GPs, and surgeons, successfully deceiving patients into handing over significant sums of money. These scams have primarily targeted members of the Mandarin-speaking community, leveraging the perceived authority of medical professionals to facilitate fraud.

What happened

Police have identified at least two distinct cases involving the use of AI-generated voice synthesis to conduct these scams. In one instance reported by Victoria police, a scammer mimicked the voice of a health professional already known to the victim. The perpetrator contacted the individual from a secondary phone number, creating a sense of legitimacy before instructing the victim to purchase gift cards.

In a separate, more severe incident, a victim was defrauded of $40,000. In this case, the attacker impersonated a doctor and exploited the patient's existing urgent health conditions to create a high-pressure environment. By manufacturing a sense of medical urgency, the fraudster successfully convinced the victim to transfer the funds. These incidents highlight a growing trend where sophisticated voice cloning is combined with social engineering to exploit vulnerable patients.