STATEWIDE: Fake doctor scam
Fraudsters are using artificial intelligence to phone victims and pretend they’re doctors, fleecing them of thousands of dollars.
The fake doctor scam, which is operating across the state, is particularly targeting the Mandarin-speaking community.
The scam has seen victims lose significant sums of money after speaking to callers who pretend to be doctors, general practitioners or surgeons.
The caller uses the victims name to appear credible before instructing the victim to purchase gift cards and provide the gift cards code to them via text message.
The caller then uses the details of the gift card to obtain the money.
The use of artificial intelligence voice cloning by the caller has been featured in several reports to police.
Victoria Police first received reports of the scam in early September, with the scammers predominantly targeting persons of Chinese background that speak Mandarin.
Since then, there have already been 10 reports of this scam to police.
Two recent reports saw one victim suffer a financial loss of $50,000 and another for $40,000.
In one of the reports the scammer called a victim and mimicked the voice of a professional known to them. The scammer claimed they were calling from a secondary phone number and pressured the victim into purchasing gift cards, saying they were intended as business gifts.
The victim purchased $50,000 in gift cards across a three-day period before becoming suspicious. The victim then called the professional’s original, verified phone number which revealed they had never made contact and exposed the situation as a scam.
The other report saw the scammer pose as a medical professional and call the victim to exploit their urgent health conditions.
The scammer instructed the victim to purchase gift cards, scratch off the PIN codes, and message photos of the codes back to the scammer.
The victim was repeatedly pressured into buying more cards until their cash flow was entirely depleted, resulting in a financial loss of $40,000.
The Cybercrime Squad urge the Mandarin-speaking community to remain vigilant.