Scams

Mom wires $5,400 after AI fakes her daughter's kidnapping

Woman thought her daughter spoke to her on the phone, pleading for help after being kidnapped. ©Image Credit: Unsplash / James Kovin

The age of AI isn't all sunshine and rainbows as one mother and daughter discover. A woman has been scammed out of $5,400 after AI is suspected to have mimicked her daughter's voice.

Mom scared for the life of her daughter

San Francisco resident Deborah Del Mastro said she got a phone call in May from an unknown caller.

Once she picked up, she received the kind of news that no parent ever wants to hear—her adult daughter had been kidnapped. The unknown caller then demanded $5,400 for her release.

The caller claimed they had proof

Del Mastro said the situation felt even more real and scary when the caller said they had proof that they had kidnapped her daughter. They told Del Mastro they had "someone here that you need to talk to."

They supposedly put her daughter on the phone, and Del Mastro said it was indeed her daughter's voice.

"I hear, my daughter's voice, sobbing, trying to breathe, having a panic attack," said Del Mastro.

"Proof" was likely AI mimicking her daughter's voice

It's believed that AI was used to mimic her daughter's voice and convince Del Mastro this was the real thing.

Del Mastro was scared for her daughter's life, and agreed to wire a total of $5,400 to the kidnapper. The money needed to be wired to several locations throughout Mexico.

After wiring the money, Del Mastro quickly called her daughter to make sure she had been released. In reality, she was at work, completely fine and Del Mastro had been scammed.

All scammers need to do nowadays is use a very short snippet of sound from a voice recording and then let AI mimic it. They can essentially create an entire fake conversation.

Protecting yourself seems to be getting harder

Protecting yourself from scammers has now taken on a new and scary realm thanks to AI. The idea that you can never be too careful has never been truer.

Source: ABC News

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