Scammers used AI voice cloning technology to impersonate a 15-year-old girl's voice in a fake kidnapping scam, demanding ransom money from her mother who was convinced the cloned voice was authentic.
In January 2023, Jennifer DeStefano received a phone call while at her daughter's dance studio in Scottsdale, Arizona. The caller used AI-cloned audio that sounded exactly like her 15-year-old daughter Brianna, who was away at a ski resort. The scammers demanded first $1 million, then $50,000 ransom, threatening violence and sexual assault. DeStefano was completely convinced by the voice clone, describing it as having the exact inflection and crying style of her daughter. The scam was exposed after four minutes when other parents helped contact the real daughter, who was safe at the ski resort. Law enforcement identified this as a virtual kidnapping scam using AI voice cloning technology. FBI sources indicate these scams originate primarily from Mexico and target southwestern US communities. Voice cloning can now be accomplished with as little as three seconds of audio and costs as low as $5 per month. The Federal Trade Commission reports Americans lost $2.6 billion to imposter scams in 2022, with families losing an average of $11,000 per fake kidnapping incident. The incident traumatized both DeStefano and her younger daughter Aubrey, who heard the threats during the call.
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.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed