Trading Standards Warning, World Craft City Status for SOT
Written by Hitmix Local News on 22 July 2024
Staffordshire consumers are being warned to be alert to increased risks from fraudsters as criminals turn to AI to make their scams more believable.
With advances in Artificial Intelligence known as AI, criminals are becoming more sophisticated with their scams, using software to make themselves more convincing.
Examples include Deepfakes – using video, convincing voice cloning and phishing messages, all of which are worrying trading standards officers at Staffordshire County Council.
Victoria Wilson, Cabinet Member responsible for Trading Standards at the authority said: “We’ve all seen the huge developments with AI in recent years but sadly we’re now starting to see more and more criminals using it to scam people.
“Our Trading Standards Team are seeing the usual types of scams but AI is making them more convincing and harder to spot, which is worrying. This means it’s important to know what to look out for and to stay one step ahead of the scammers.
Deepfakes, using video cloning software to create fake video content, is used to produce bogus celebrity endorsements and messaging. This tries to fool consumers into believing a bogus or non-existent product is genuine.
Voice cloning is similar to deepfake videos and uses voice cloning to create artificial voice recordings from samples of speech.
“If you think you’ve been scammed, call your bank immediately using the number on the back of your bank card and report it to Action Fraud, or call the police on 101.”
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Stoke-on-Trent has been awarded World Craft City status, catapulting the potteries – onto the global stage.
World Craft City status is awarded by the World Crafts Council to areas where there are excellent social, cultural, and economic contributions from communities.
The city joins a growing list of locations across the UK and wider including Outer Hebrides in Scotland; Kilkenny in Ireland
Leader of the city council, Councillor Jane Ashworth said: “We are absolutely thrilled at the news that Stoke-on-Trent has received World Craft City status. This is a tremendous achievement, and one that culminates years of hard work by our cultural community. This recognition by the World Crafts Council has the potential to open so many doors for our city, not least when it comes to working alongside other cities and towns across the world who also have World Craft City status.
