AI Voice Clone Scam

Using just a few seconds of audio from social media, scammers clone a loved one's voice with AI and call you claiming to be in an emergency. The voice sounds completely real.

Scammers scrape a short audio clip of a target's voice from social media videos, voicemail greetings, or podcasts, then feed it into inexpensive or free AI voice-cloning software that can reproduce speech patterns after just a few seconds of source audio. Once the clone is ready, the scammer calls a family member, plays a script in the cloned voice claiming to be in a car accident, arrested, or kidnapped, and hands the call off to a fake lawyer, officer, or kidnapper who pressures for an urgent wire transfer or gift card payment before the target has time to verify what's really happening.

• The cloned voice sounds slightly flat, oddly paced, or emotionless despite the supposedly dire situation.
• The call quickly hands off to a second person before the family member can be asked detailed questions.
• Extreme urgency paired with instructions not to hang up or call anyone else.
• Payment is requested via gift cards, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency.
• The "family member" avoids or fumbles a question only the real person would know.

• Establish a family safe word that AI cannot know — use it to verify identity.
• Hang up and call back on a number stored in your own contacts.
• Be suspicious of any caller who immediately asks for money.
• Make your social media voice content private to limit what AI can clone.