All scamsAI / Deepfake
AI voice cloning scam
Your child's voice, crying, asking for money — built from a few seconds of video.
How it works
Three seconds of speech from a social post, a voicemail greeting or a livestream is enough to clone a voice convincingly. The call comes late, the connection is poor, and the voice is distressed: an accident, an arrest, a kidnapping, a phone taken away. A second 'official' voice takes over with payment instructions. Panic is deliberate, because panic removes the pause in which you would have checked.
Red flags
- An emergency call demanding secrecy from the rest of the family
- Payment by wire, crypto or a courier collecting cash
- A poor line and an insistence that you cannot call back
- Details that stay vague when you ask something only they would know
Real-world example
"Mum, it's me — I crashed the car and they've taken my phone. Please don't tell Dad. The lawyer needs $9,000 for bail this morning."
What to do
- 01Hang up and call the person back on their own number.
- 02Agree a family safe word now, before you ever need it.
- 03Ask a question the real person could answer and a cloner could not.
- 04Never send money by courier, crypto or wire on an emergency call.
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