Scammers used AI voice cloning technology to impersonate family members in phone calls, successfully defrauding victims out of thousands of dollars by creating convincing fake voices from short audio samples found online.
Multiple incidents occurred where scammers used AI voice generation software to clone the voices of family members and defraud victims through phone calls. In one case, Benjamin Perkin's elderly parents received a call from someone claiming to be a lawyer who said their son had killed a U.S. diplomat in a car accident and was in jail. The caller then put an AI-generated voice that sounded like Perkin on the phone, convincing his parents to send $21,000 CAD ($15,449 USD) through a Bitcoin terminal. In another incident, 73-year-old Ruth Card received a similar call from someone impersonating her grandson Brandon, claiming he was in jail and needed bail money. Card and her husband rushed to withdraw $3,000 CAD but were stopped by a bank manager who warned them about similar scams. According to the Federal Trade Commission, impostor scams were the second most popular fraud type in America in 2022, with over 36,000 reports and phone-based incidents accounting for over $11 million in losses. The technology requires only 30 seconds of audio from sources like Facebook, TikTok, or YouTube videos to create convincing voice clones. Companies like ElevenLabs offer AI voice synthesis tools for as little as $5 per month, though the company has implemented some safeguards after reports of misuse.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to gain a personal advantage over others such as through cheating, fraud, scams, blackmail or targeted manipulation of beliefs or behavior. Examples include AI-facilitated plagiarism for research or education, impersonating a trusted or fake individual for illegitimate financial benefit, or creating humiliating or sexual imagery.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed