Don’t Trust The Voice You Hear – AI Robocall Scams A Problem In Minnesota + Wisconsin

Imagine answering the phone and it's a familiar voice asking for help. But, it turns out that person is actually a bad actor trying to get your money.

That's what's been happening in the last few years with the AI explosion. Bad actors can take just seconds of audio from someone and duplicate their voice. AI (artificial intelligence) is getting so good that you can be having a conversation with a robot and not even know it.

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I first ran into this last year when I got a call from a bogus Minnesota Police Fund organization. The only way I picked up on the fact that it was AI was because they wouldn't give me a straight answer. It kept repeating, "I understand," and then kept asking me to help the cause.

I hung up, and I googled the foundation and saw that it was indeed a reported scam.

Since then, AI has continued to grow and develop, making it even harder to recognize.

FCC Makes AI-Generated Voices In Robocalls Illegal

The Federal Communications Commission announced that calls made with AI-generated voices are "artificial" under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. This makes common robocall scams using voice cloning technology illegal.

“Bad actors are using AI-generated voices in unsolicited robocalls to extort vulnerable family members, imitate celebrities, and misinform voters.  We’re putting the fraudsters behind these robocalls on notice,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.  “State Attorneys General will now have new tools to crack down on these scams and ensure the public is protected from fraud and misinformation.”

State Attorney Generals now can go after these bad actors.

The ruling allows State Attorney Generals new tools to go after the bad actors behind the scam calls. They can be fined, and they are working on technology to block and stop the robocalls from happening in the first place.

Minnesota Attorney General lobbied for this ruling.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison was one of 26 who wrote a letter to the FCC supporting this approach.

Beyond a financial scam - a threat to our country.

Most scams involve taking your money. However, the deepfake technology could be used to interfere with our democratic process. You may think you're getting a call from a celebrity to support a candidate when it's actually just a robocall. Misinformation can spread and it can become hard to understand what is real and what is fake.

Read more about the ground-breaking ruling from the FCC.

You can read more in-depth about what the government is doing to combat AI-generated Robocalls from the Federal Communications Commission.