Scammers Use AI to Create Voice Deepfakes in Telegram
Media outlets report that Telegram users are facing a new type of scam. After hacking into someone’s account, cybercriminals begin messaging the victim’s contacts, sending fake voice messages that sound like the account owner. To generate these audio messages, scammers use clips from the victim’s real voice messages.
According to RBC, these fake voice messages are sent both in private chats and in all group chats where the hacked account is a member. The hackers then attach a photo of a bank card with the victim’s name and surname, asking for money.
Journalists note that in one case, the name and surname on social media differed from the information in the victim’s passport, but the scammers still used the passport data. The amount they tried to obtain was 200,000 rubles (about $2,200).
A similar situation happened to a VKontakte user, resulting in a loss of about 3,000 rubles (around $33). A VKontakte representative assured journalists that there are no widespread scams of this kind on their platform, stating, “The social network’s security systems effectively counteract such actions. VKontakte uses AI-based automated tools and responds quickly to user reports.”
How the Scam Works
Evgeny Egorov, a lead specialist at F.A.C.C.T.’s Digital Risk Protection department, explained that this scheme is new and “quite advanced” for Russia, though similar cases have been seen abroad. “Scammers have long used Telegram account takeovers and fake messages asking for loans, but in this case, they’ve combined all the elements into one scheme,” he said.
He described the process: first, the attacker hacks a Telegram or WhatsApp account (for example, through fake voting schemes, which cybersecurity experts warned about last year). Then, the scammers download saved voice messages and use AI services to synthesize new audio messages with the desired context.
Next, they send these messages in private and group chats, asking for large sums of money. To make the scam more convincing, they use AI-generated voice messages and edited photos of bank cards, forging the recipient’s name. Last year, it was reported that fake card generation has become widespread through special Telegram bots.
Growing Wave of Account Thefts
Diana Selekhina, an expert at Solar AURA’s external digital threat monitoring center, told RBC that her company has recently seen a wave of new scams involving stolen Telegram accounts. In the last 30 days alone, they identified over 500 new domain names similar to the messenger’s name.
“All these schemes require entering your phone number and an SMS code. The obtained data is then used by attackers for unauthorized access to accounts and subsequent spam or extortion,” Selekhina said. “We’ve seen cases of deepfakes using the likenesses of celebrities to promote fraudulent resources, and now this technique is gradually being used in Telegram, often combined with voice messages.”
Irina Zinovkina, head of the research group at Positive Technologies, agrees, noting that this method is essentially a more advanced form of social engineering. However, this type of scam is not always effective, since not everyone uses voice messages, and scammers often can’t piece together the necessary phrases from the available material.