AI triggers voice spoofing scams: this is how new cybercriminals act and it only takes them seconds | United States | artificial intelligence | cloning

But it was a clone generated with artificial intelligence (AI) that turned her into a new victim of identity theft scam, a modern version of the “uncle’s story” about which more and more authorities and consumer advocates in the United States are warning.

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Benz, a 46-year-old insurance broker and mother of six, jumped off the couch at her home in Buffalo, upstate New York, when she received a call from an unknown number. On the other end of the line seemed to be his son Fred, crying and asking for help.

They told him that a friend of Fred’s had been shot and killed, and that his son—who was out at a local soccer game—had been held hostage. He was ordered to deliver cash to a nearby supermarket to pay the man who was holding him.

Until she received a selfie of Fred smiling at the game and learned that they had tried to scam her.

“Nothing would have convinced me that it was a scam until I saw it with my own eyes,” Benz told AFP. “It was 20 minutes of panic.”

“Anyone can do it”

The FBI noted in April that Americans lost more than $893 million last year in AI-enabled scams.

Simple internet searches can turn up a wide range of voice cloning apps, many available for free, that create realistic replicas from short snippets of a person’s real voice.

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“It used to be a difficult thing to do. Now anyone can do it in seconds,” said Brian Long, CEO of Adaptive Security, a company that offers AI fraud protection training.

“One guy alone in a room with a keyboard can create an infinite number of scammers,” Long told AFP, adding that AI tools are capable of creating messages from audio obtained from social networks or voicemails.

Benz’s story reflects a recurring pattern: a call from a supposed family member in trouble—arrested, in an accident, or involved in a crime—urgently asking for money.

Scammers then often add voices of alleged lawyers or bank employees, creating a confusing and urgent call.

anguished voice

Many scams don’t even require a perfect voice clone.

“A distressed voice saying ‘Mom, help me’ or ‘Dad, I was in an accident’ only has to sound credible for a few seconds,” Amit Gupta, an executive at cybersecurity firm Pindrop, told AFP.

“The goal is not a perfect replica of the voice, but rather to generate enough doubt and urgency for the victim to act without verifying anything,” he noted.

Since going public with her story, Benz said she has received numerous messages from other victims, many reluctant to give their names out of shame.

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Seniors are particularly vulnerable to these voice spoofing scams.

The FBI said Americans over age 60 reported losses of more than $7.7 billion last year, a sharp increase from 2024.

“They’re professionals, and when they get people to answer the phone, they’re dealing with amateurs,” said Philadelphia attorney Gary Schildhorn.

In 2023, Schildhorn testified before the United States Senate about his experience with a call in which a voice imitating his son Brett assured him that he had been arrested for drunk driving and needed to post bail.

The call sent Schildhorn, now 73, running to the bank.

“When I arrive, my phone rings. It’s my son. He tells me: ‘You were the victim of a scam,'” this lawyer told AFP. “And I tell him, ‘Brett, I’m going to go to my grave swearing it was your voice.’”