Recently, Jennifer DeStefano from Scottsdale, Arizona was the victim of a scam involving a cloned voice of her 15-year-old daughter. DeStefano received a call from an unknown number where she heard her daughter’s voice crying, saying “Mom, I messed up.” This was peculiar as her daughter was out of town at a ski trip at the time. A male voice then came on the line, demanding DeStefano pay a ransom of $1 million. When she responded she was unable to afford the amount, the scammer lowered the sum to $50,000. The voice was so similar to her daughter’s that DeStefano did not doubt its authenticity.
Thankfully, DeStefano’s husband was able to confirm their daughter was safe and away on a ski trip. The voice was actually created by a voice cloning software. Companies have been developing AI software with use cases such as creating text-to-speech voiceovers and foreign-language audio dubs for YouTube videos and audiobooks. Unfortunately, there have been attempts by malicious actors to use these tools for scams.
AI startup ElevenLabs is one of the companies developing voice-cloning software. Dan Mayo from the FBI’s Phoenix office advised of such scams and suggested avoiding responding to calls from unknown numbers to prevent getting scammed. DeSteftano clarified that her daughter does not have any public social media accounts and advised others to be vigilant in protecting themselves from scams.
