Do Son 
Cybercriminals are increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to craft remarkably accurate voice replicas of renowned basketball players, footballers, and other sports icons. While audio-based scams are not new, advancements in AI have significantly expanded the prevalence and sophistication of these threats.
Such deceptive schemes are frequently employed to coerce unsuspecting victims into divulging sensitive information or transferring funds. Numerous incidents have been recorded in which criminals, armed with cloned voices, have stolen millions.
Beyond targeted attacks on businesses, threat actors have also begun exploiting celebrity voices to deceive the broader public. A study conducted by ticket comparison platform SeatPick in collaboration with AI experts from AIPRM revealed the alarming frequency with which the voices of certain athletes are cloned.
According to the findings, the voice of football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo — the most-followed celebrity on Instagram — has been synthetically reproduced using AI over 5,500 times, making the Portuguese athlete the most frequently cloned sports figure.
Trailing him is American basketball forward LeBron James, whose voice has been replicated more than 4,700 times. Researchers note that many of these voice simulations may have been generated by fans for entertainment rather than malicious purposes.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes ranks third among athletes whose voices are subject to cloning, with more than 3,000 instances of deepfake-generated replications.
Other sports figures commonly exploited by cybercriminals include quarterback Tom Brady, basketball player Stephen Curry, and footballers Neymar, Lionel Messi, and Kylian Mbappé.
