AI-powered scams are on the rise in the Netherlands, with fraudsters using cloned voices to impersonate banks, tech support — and even family members.Credit : Shutterstock, Rokas Tenys
If your phone rings and the voice sounds familiar, you might want to think twice before you speak. In the Netherlands, scammers are now using artificial intelligence to clone voices — and they’re fooling thousands of people.
In just the first three months of 2025, nearly 10,000 scam calls were reported to the Fraud Help Desk, the country’s national fraud watchdog. That’s more than triple the number from the same period last year — and experts say we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg.
“This rise didn’t come out of nowhere,” says Tanya Wijngaarde, spokesperson for the Help Desk. “Phone scams have been climbing for a while — they doubled in 2024. But now, AI has supercharged it.”
AI voice scams mimic banks, loved ones and tech support
What makes these new scams so effective is how eerily real they sound. Gone are the robotic voices and bad accents. Today’s scammers use AI software that can clone a voice — complete with emotion and tone — in just seconds. Sometimes, all they need is a short voice sample from a video, voicemail or even social media.
“It used to take effort to sound believable. Now, a machine does it better,” says cybercrime expert Anouk Vos. “Scammers don’t need acting skills anymore — they just need a few clicks.”
And it’s not just the voice. Vos explains that other free tools can scrape personal info online, generate convincing dialogue, and create full scam scripts — all in moments. “The tech is good. Too good, in some cases.”
Most of the calls fall into two categories: fake tech support from companies like Microsoft or Netflix, or bank helpdesk fraud, where the caller pretends to be from your bank, warning you of suspicious activity. In some of the worst cases reported last year, victims lost upwards of €21,000 each.
Why banks and telecoms struggle to stop AI phone scams
Part of the problem is that even when banks suspect fraud, they’re not allowed to act fast enough — due to outdated privacy laws.
“Sometimes, the scammer is still on the line while the victim is transferring the money,” says Mathieu Andriessen, head of NLconnect, the Dutch telecom industry group.
Right now, telecom providers can collect call metadata — like how long the call lasted and where it came from — but they’re not legally allowed to share that info with banks or police in real time.
“If a bank could see that a client is making a large transfer while also on a suspicious call, it could be a huge warning sign,” Andriessen adds. “But legally, their hands are tied.”
For now, it’s the public that’s left exposed. The Fraud Help Desk and industry leaders have been pushing the Dutch government to update the law and let providers and banks work together more closely. But until that happens, these scams will keep getting smarter — and more dangerous.
So next time the phone rings and someone sounds familiar, remember: you’re not just trusting the voice — you’re trusting the tech behind it.
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