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AI Voice Fraud on the Rise

Imagine waking up to a late-night phone call from the voice of a loved one in trouble — a grandchild in a hospital, a sibling in jail, or a child crying at the hands of a kidnapper demanding ransom. You'd do anything they asked. That's exactly what scammers are counting on when using artificial intelligence (AI) voice cloning to trick people into sending them money.

What sounds like a scam from a dystopian future is happening today. A woman in Arizona1 received a call from a supposed kidnapper who cloned her teenage daughter's voice and recreated it, screaming for help. A Saskatchewan grandmother2 believed a mimic of her grandson's voice, calling to say he was in jail and needed bail money. A San Diego woman was told her grandson hit a diplomat and he was going to jail.3 Canadian officials reported4 one man used AI voice cloning to scam $200,000 from eight people in three days.

These frightening stories are occurring across the U.S. and beyond. The scale and pace of the growing problem with AI voice cloning being so new is that it hasn't yet shown up in traditional fraud data sources. McAfee researchers recently released a report on AI voice cloning, adding a voice can be cloned from just three seconds of audio.

What we do know is that of the $8.8 billion in fraud losses5American consumers reported to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2022, $2.6 billion came from imposter scams. That makes it the second largest fraud category, which grew from $2.4 billion in 2021. Could AI push those numbers even higher?

Federal officials aren't waiting around for the data to sound the alarm. FTC Chair Lina Khan6 said in June that AI voice cloning can "turbocharge" scams and that "we need to be vigilant early." The FTC released a consumer warning7 about the phenomenon in March, not long after the FBI did the same8.


How Does AI Voice Fraud Work?

Many people are now aware of how text-based generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, work. You type in a question or request, and it pulls from massive amounts of data to generate a response. Voice cloning software requires one more input: a few sentences of a voice recording. Your voicemail greeting or a short video on social media can do the trick.

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Canadian officials reported one man used AI voice cloning to scam $200,000 from eight people in three days.

An AI voice cloning tool, some of which are available at a low cost, can analyze the recording9 to find unique characteristics in the voice, like pitch and tone. Then it pulls information from an enormous voice database — similar voices and speech patterns — that it uses to mimic the original voice.

Scammers use the software in a variety of ways. Some pretend to be a loved one for the entire call, asking for money directly. Others use the cloned voice to hook the victim and then take over the call, pretending to be a lawyer, kidnapper, or other intermediary asking for the funds. They often ask for untraceable forms of payment, like cryptocurrency, gift cards, or a wire transfer. Those three are immediate red flags.


How to Protect Yourself from AI Voice Fraud

Getting a call from a cloned voice of a loved one is terrifying. Yet you can avoid letting threat actors get away with their schemes if you're prepared in advance. Here's what experts say to do to protect yourself:

  • Ask your family members not to share information about travel plans10 on social media. Scammers use these as windows to target separated family members.
  • When you receive a call from an unknown number, let them speak first11. They could be recording your voice to clone later.
  • Create a family safeword12. Make it a standard part of your emergency plan. When a family member is in trouble, saying the safeword lets other loved ones know it's them.
  • Try to reach the person13 who is supposedly calling you. If you're alone, put the call on hold and dial that person's actual number on another line. If someone else is in the house, have them try to reach the supposed caller.
  • Don't trust the call just because your phone says it's coming from the loved one's phone number. Spoofing someone's number, meaning faking the number that shows up on caller ID, is easy. Tell them you need to hang up and call them right back14.
  • Question the payment type15 they are requesting. Scammers ask for money to be wired, sent as cryptocurrency, in gift cards, and peer-to-peer payment apps.

When a new generation of generative AI tools created a burst of headlines, many people began asking some terrifying questions: Could tomorrow's AI be a threat to our jobs? To education? To human existence? Those longterm questions may have distracted us from the dangerous capabilities AI some tools have today.

Fortunately, awareness can be the best tool against an AI voice cloning scam. Once you know they can happen, keep your finances and family safe with a plan to verify your identity on the phone if needed — and hopefully, you'll never have to use it.

Important disclosure information

This content is general in nature and does not constitute legal, tax, accounting, financial or investment advice. You are encouraged to consult with competent legal, tax, accounting, financial or investment professionals based on your specific circumstances. We do not make any warranties as to accuracy or completeness of this information, do not endorse any third-party companies, products, or services described here, and take no liability for your use of this information.

  1. Faith Karimi, "'Mom, these bad men have me': She believes scammers cloned her daughter's voice in a fake kidnapping," CNN, April 29, 2023. Back
  2. Pranshu Verma, "They thought loved ones were calling for help. It was an AI scam," The Washington Post, March 5, 2023. Back
  3. Melissa Mecija, "AI voice scheme nearly tricks San Diego woman in high-tech 'grandparent scam'," published November 7, 2023. Accessed June 13, 2024. Back
  4. Ryan Cooke, "How scammers likely used artificial intelligence to con Newfoundland seniors out of $200K," CBC, March 22, 2023. Back
  5. Federal Trade Commission, "New FTC Data Show Consumers Reported Losing Nearly $8.8 Billion to Scams in 2022," February 23, 2023. Back
  6. Pete Syme, "AI is being used to 'turbocharge' fraud with voice cloning scams, and regulators 'need to be vigilant early,' FTC chair warns," Business Insider, June 2, 2023. Back
  7. Alvaro Puig, "Scammers use AI to enhance their family emergency schemes," Federal Trade Commission, March 20, 2023. Back
  8. Special Agent Siobhan Johnson, "FBI Chicago Warns Public About Virtual Kidnapping Scams," Federal Bureau of Investigation, March 4, 2022. Back
  9. Pete Syme, "AI is being used to 'turbocharge' fraud with voice cloning scams, and regulators 'need to be vigilant early,' FTC chair warns," Business Insider, June 2, 2023. Back
  10. Faith Karimi, CNN (n 1). Back
  11. Megan Cerullo, "Cybercriminals are using AI voice cloning tools to dupe victims," CBS News, March 21, 2023. Back
  12. Megan McArdle, "How an AI safeword can protect you and your money," Washington Post, April 26, 2023. Back
  13. Alvaro Puig, FTC (n 7) Back
  14. Jennifer Jolly, "The call is coming from inside the internet: AI voice scams on the rise with cloning tech," USA Today, May 16, 2023. Back
  15. Alvaro Puig, FTC (n 7) Back