关注公众号“水木英语晨读Freya” 领取1~920期原版外刊讲义PDF

Thailand's PM latest to 'almost' fall victim to 'call-centre' scam

Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra almost fell victim to a phone scam using AI to impersonate a foreign leader’s voice, she said Wednesday.

The PM, the youngest daughter of telecoms billionaire and ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, said she received a message in a voice sounding identical to a well-known leader, without identifying the person.

“In the clip, he said he was looking forward to seeing me and working together,” she said. She missed a call from the same number during the night, before a second voice message the next day aroused her suspicions. “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 said.

A text message asking for money to be sent to a bank account outside Thailand soon followed, confirming her doubts. Paetongtarn, 38, last week declared more than $400 million in assets to Thailand’s anti-corruption commission. Her father Thaksin – who once owned Manchester City football club – has a net worth of $2.1 billion, according to Forbes, making him the 10th-richest person in Thailand.

关注公众号“水木英语晨读Freya” 领取1~920期原版外刊讲义PDF