Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra revealed Wednesday that she nearly fell victim to a phone hoax that used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to simulate a foreign leader’s voice. The Prime Minister, the youngest daughter of telecom mogul and former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, said she received a message from someone who sounded like a well-known politician but did not identify herself. “He said in the clip that he was looking forward to seeing me and working with me,” she claimed.
She missed a call from the same number overnight, and a second voice message the next day raised her concerns. The voice said Thailand is the only Asean country which has not yet made a donation — when I heard that, I thought ‘this is not right’,” she continued.
A text message asking for money to be paid to a bank account outside Thailand soon followed, confirming her suspicions.
I knew it for sure when I saw that,” she stated. Paetongtarn did not disclose when she got the messages.
In Thailand, so-called “call centre scams” are popular, in which fraudsters impersonate police, government officials, or bank employees – typically utilising automated “robocalls” to initiate the conversation.
Paetongtarn, 38, revealed more than $400 million in assets to Thailand’s anti-corruption commission last week. According to Forbes, her father Thaksin, who previously owned Manchester City football club, has a net worth of $2.1 billion, ranking him as Thailand’s tenth richest person.
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