A familiar face or voice is not verification; hang up and call a number you already know
Seeing a familiar face or hearing a familiar voice is no longer sufficient. For a money request, hang up and call the old number already saved in your contacts, or ask a trusted mutual acquaintance. Excuses such as poor signal or being in a meeting do not establish identity; if verification is refused, do not transfer.
What it takes
One extra call and a few minutes. Avoid posting large amounts of clear face video or long voice recordings publicly. The challenge is refusing an immediate transfer when the caller presses you.
What you may gain
The Ministry of Public Security’s cyber-security bureau gives three checks. First, ask for a continuous head turn, or for the person to cover their face fully with a palm and quickly uncover it; the cited guidance says synthetic video may stutter, blur, or distort during complex occlusion and lighting changes. Second, listen for unnatural breathing pauses, emotional variation, mechanical qualities, or unusual background sound in synthetic speech. Third—and most importantly—verify through a separate channel: end the call, dial a familiar number you already know, or contact a mutual acquaintance. China prohibits using deep-synthesis technology for fraud. Providers of facial generation or replacement and synthesized or imitated voices must apply prominent labels where required, and no organization or person may maliciously remove, alter, forge, or conceal them. Compliant providers label content; scammers may not, so absence of a label proves nothing. In a case publicized by the criminal-investigation bureau, police uncovered a 14-person group holding over 50,000 synthesized moving-face videos and over 500,000 items of personal information, and seized 60 cloud servers. The 2025 labeling measures took effect nationwide on 1 September 2025.
Context & considerations
Use the old number in your own contacts, not caller ID or a new number supplied in the conversation. Refusal to verify because of a bad signal or a meeting is a reason to stop the transaction. Movement tests are only supporting clues: AI improves, so separate-channel verification is the dependable principle. If money has already been sent, report immediately. For limiting collection of your face and voice, see chapter 14. Grade B reflects official methods and cases without a measured reduction in scam rates. The ministry’s website returned 521 errors during the original check, so the source used Fujian police reposts.
Research & references
Ministry of Public Security Cyber Security Bureau (2025). Seeing is not believing: beware new AI scams, reposted by Fujian police. http://gat.fujian.gov.cn/ztzl/fjjffpzxrx/spjq/202509/t20250922_7013008.htm; Cyberspace Administration of China, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and Ministry of Public Security (2022). Provisions on deep synthesis in internet information services, Articles 6, 16, and 17, effective 10 January 2023. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2022-12/12/content_5731431.htm; Cyberspace Administration of China and three other departments (2025). Measures for labeling AI-generated and synthesized content, Article 10, effective 1 September 2025. https://www.cac.gov.cn/2025-03/14/c_1743654684782215.htm; Ministry of Public Security Criminal Investigation Bureau and CCTV News (2026). Police uncover more than 50,000 synthesized moving-face videos, reposted by Fujian police. http://gat.fujian.gov.cn/ztzl/fjjffpzxrx/spjq/202603/t20260330_7117146.htm.