James Nesbitt on AI voice scams: “My daughters are far more clued up than I am.”

When it comes to money, many of the lessons I’ve passed down to my daughters are the same as what I was taught as a lad: don’t take what you earn for granted, keep track of what you spend, and look after your savings.

I grew up in a home where we were taught to understand the worth of a pound. My dad was a teacher and my mum was a civil servant. We weren’t broke, but money was definitely something my parents knew the worth of. They worked hard, and I learnt from an early age that money was something you valued and knew you had to work for.

That’s an ethos that I’ve always nurtured, and that’s absolutely affected how I taught my two daughters - who are now not so little anymore and in their twenties - about money while they were growing up.

However, the balance of who’s teaching who has started to shift over the last few years, especially around keeping your money safe. My daughters are far more clued up than I am on what to watch out for, especially when it comes to scams that rely on new technology like AI voice scams, and I often turn to them for help. 

A few months ago, I got a text message asking for some personal details. I wasn’t sure if it was legitimate so when they came round, I showed it to them. Their reply was instant: “Ohhhh Dad – that’s obviously a scam!”.

While to them, it’s clear as day, it isn’t always so easy for people of my generation. When I was growing up, there were no passwords to remember and the things you needed to keep safe were almost always physical – the envelope with your weekly wage in it, your chequebook and (in my case) headshots for the next round of auditions.

Nowadays, there’s so much that we need to keep safe from fraudsters, right down to the name of your first pet. That’s why, when Starling asked me to work with them on a campaign to raise awareness of family Safe Phrases and combat AI cloning voice scams and voice phishing, I wanted to get involved to learn a few things myself, and educate others about what fraudsters are capable of.

What are AI voice scams?

It will come as no surprise that this was my first question too. Quite simply: AI voice scams are the name of scams that use AI technology to clone a human voice. The technology is so sophisticated that it can be used to replicate the voice of someone close to you. And believe me, it could trick anyone. 

This is why it can be so dangerous in the hands of a fraudster. They can manipulate you by making it sound like the call from an unknown number is really your daughter, perhaps phoning to say that she’s had her phone stolen and needs money for a cab home. As a father, I know what that paternal instinct feels like – without thinking, I’d want to jump in and help straight away. The fraudsters know this too. 

How can I protect myself from AI voice scams?

Anyone can be targeted and tricked by fraudsters, especially when they have high-tech tools in their arsenal to use against you. One of the best ways to protect yourself is to come up with a Safe Phrase to check whether the call from your ‘loved one’ is real or not. It can become a sort of emergency code that only you and your immediate family or very close friends know – a simple and effective barrier against fraud.

I now have a Safe Phrase with my daughters and it’s made me feel much more in control. We agreed on one in-person, rather than going back and forth over the WhatsApp group so it isn’t written down anywhere digital. The pace that technology changes is frightening sometimes, but we all have a responsibility to keep up to date on the latest scams so that we can keep our money safe.