- Deepfake -Caller claims thousands of victims, report finds
- Up to 10% of spam -calls are fraudulent
- The top scam for British victims were false HMRC calls
AI Deepfake -Walk Calls dominate the scam and cost British consumers millions of pounds.
A new report from Hiya has detailed the increasing risk and Deepfake Voice Scams in the UK and abroad, noticing how the emergence of generative aai means that Dybfakes is more convincing than ever, and attackers can exploit them more frequently -even go as far as targeting businesses and c -suite leaders that do deep -fag -Dant.
AI lowers barriers to criminals to commit fraud and make scams lighter, faster and more efficient, and the average successful fake call costs the British victim £ 595 – so here’s what the report reveals.
Billions of calls
Hiya says it marked 11.3 billion global suspected spam calls in Q4 alone in 2024, – 123 million calls per year. Day. Of these, 22% were marked as a nuisance call and 9% were false – which may not sound like much, but that means one in ten unexpected calls could cost you hundreds if you are not careful.
A study confirmed that 26% of British inhabitants have received Voice Deepfake calls in the last 12 months – and of them reported 40% to be scammed, 35% reported losing money and 32% had stolen personal information.
The subject of these was primarily financial and banking fraud, which made up 11% of the deep subjects, followed closely by insurance, holiday ordering, delivery service (all 8% each).
Overall, Global Anti -Skamalliance estimates that a staggering $ 1.03 trillion lost to scams around the world by 2024 – and Deepfakes slowly become one of the chosen tools for criminals.
“When we reflect on the last quarter of 2024, it is clear that AI-driven fraud is becoming more sophisticated than ever, which poses a serious threat to both consumers and businesses,” said Alex Algard, CEO of Hiya.
The supreme scam in Britain was an imitation of her Majesty’s revenue and Customs (HMRC) – where the victims are told that a criminal case is taken against them for tax fraud, and even an arrest warrant has been issued in their name.
This type of fraud aims to get panic victims and convince them that they are in trouble – and encourage them to disclose bank information, financial information, or personally identifiable information (PII).
It is important to note that even if the ‘only’ thing a scammer accesses, your personal data is still leaving you with a serious risk of identity theft as criminals will take loans, credit cards or bank accounts in your name.
How to protect yourself
The report comes shortly after another recent study showed when 2000 people were shown Deepfake content, only two of them managed to get a perfect score – so everyone had to be on their guard.
Deepfakes are essentially social engineering scams -the natural development of phishing attacks that often mimic banks, popular services, colleagues or even family to try to fool victims to click on malicious links, scan dangerous QR codes, or hand over their personal details.
However, voice and video -dybfakes are undoubtedly more dangerous as they can be seriously convincing. We recommend establishing a safe word with your family and close friends (anyone who may call you in an emergency) – so you can be sure you are talking to the one you think.
Outside of friends and family, be very careful about any call from someone who claims to be your bank, or a software company or any company with services you are using regularly. If your ‘bank’ or HMRC call, search for their number, call it and ask to be transferred to the same person.
Do not give your information to anyone over the phone and make sure you change your passwords regularly and keep unique passwords for each site that contains sensitive information. If you need advice, we’ve compiled a list of the best tricks for creating a secure password.
