Can You Tell It’s AI? Human Perception of Synthetic Voices in Vishing Scenarios

Authors: Zoha Hayat Bhatti, Bakhtawar Ahtisham, Seemal Tausif, Niklas George, Nida ul Habib Bajwa, Mobin Javed
Published: 2026-02-23

Source: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.20061

PDF: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2602.20061

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Voice Data Processing System Phishing

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Abstract

Large Language Models and commercial speech synthesis systems now enable highly realistic AI-generated voice scams (vishing), raising urgent concerns about deception at scale. Yet it remains unclear whether individuals can reliably distinguish AI-generated speech from human-recorded voices in realistic scam contexts and what perceptual strategies underlie their judgments. We conducted a controlled online study in which 22 participants evaluated 16 vishing-style audio clips (8 AI-generated, 8 human-recorded) and classified each as human or AI while reporting confidence. Participants performed poorly: mean accuracy was 37.5