Voice deepfakes are coming for your bank balance

This spring, Clive Kabatznik, an investor in Florida, called his local Bank of America representative to discuss a big money transfer he was planning to make. Then he called again.

Except the second phone call wasn't from Kabatznik. Rather, a software program had artificially generated his voice and tried to trick the banker into moving the money elsewhere.

Kabatznik and his banker were the targets of a cutting-edge scam attempt that has grabbed the attention of cybersecurity experts: the use of artificial intelligence to generate voice deepfakes, or vocal renditions that mimic real people's voices.

The problem is still new enough that there is no comprehensive accounting of how often it happens. But one expert whose company, Pindrop, monitors the audio traffic for many of the largest US banks said he had seen a jump in its prevalence this year - and in the...