Voice-cloning scams are terrifying – Know what to look for

March 13, 2024

By Kim Komando

Not long ago, a woman named Robin was sleeping beside her husband, Steve. They live in Brooklyn with their two young kids. No, this isn’t the setup for a joke. It’s the setup for a nightmare scam that’s happening everywhere right now.

Robin was awoken by a phone call from her mother-in-law, Mona. “Must be a butt-dial,” she figured. Then the phone rang again. When she picked up, she heard Mona crying and repeating, “I can’t do it, I can’t do it.” 

Then, a man she’d never heard before came on the line. “I’ve got a gun to your mom’s head, and I’m gonna blow her brains out if you don’t do exactly what I say.”

I’ll cut to the chase. It was a deepfake. Robin’s in-laws were never in danger — but she didn’t know that.

What should you do if this happens to you?

These criminals bank on you losing your cool. They pull out every scare tactic in the book to keep you on the phone and doing exactly what they want. Almost always — as was the case for Robin — they want money. 

Say you get a call that your daughter is being held for ransom. Your goal is to try to contact your daughter as fast as possible. These scams fall apart quickly since the person was never in danger — but you won’t know that until you can confirm.

This is not the first or the last time

I’ve been writing about this type of scam for a long time, and I’m seeing more reports of it in the news. It’s frightening to think that just a few seconds of your voice can lead to a horrible situation for your loved ones.

I mean it when I say a few seconds, by the way. Think about your voicemail message. Saying “Hello? Is anyone there?” or “Hi, you’ve reached Jon! Please leave a message” is plenty for a cybercriminal to train AI to sound exactly like you. 

That voice profile can be used in classic scams targeting older family members or grieving relatives, too. It’s nasty stuff.

• The quickest and easiest way to help avoid this: delete that custom voicemail. The steps for doing so are slightly different for each device, but you can find the general steps in our guide here. 

The FTC has another piece of advice: Don’t say a word if you get a call from a number you don’t recognize. Wait for the caller to speak first to see if there’s a human there. If not, hang up — even if they talk and you think it’s a scam.

✅ This is important stuff, folks. Pass this article on to the people you care about.