Mom loses thousands to fake kidnapping call using AI clone of daughter’s voice

ST. LOUIS — A Missouri woman lost thousands of dollars after scammers used an AI-cloned voice of her daughter to convince her that her child had been kidnapped.

The woman, who asked to be identified only as Rachel, received a call that appeared to come from her college-age daughter’s phone number.

“She said, ‘Mom, I had an accident. I rear-ended somebody and they’re taking me,’ and she was crying,” Rachel said.

The voice sounded like her daughter.

“It’s my child. I know my child’s voice, and it sounded exactly like my child’s voice that I’ve heard every day of my life,” Rachel said.

The criminals threatened to kill her daughter and convinced Rachel to wire thousands of dollars to them over an hour and a half. They provided step-by-step instructions for sending money to Mexico through wire services.

Scammers used threats and surveillance claims

The criminals claimed they were following Rachel.

“All I could think about was getting my daughter back,” Rachel said.

Rachel realized she had been conned when her actual daughter started calling her.

Rachel had recorded the entire fraudulent call and said she wanted other parents to be aware of the scam.

AI voice cloning requires minimal audio

Ann Dickherber, a cybersecurity expert, said scammers likely infiltrated Rachel’s or her daughter’s phones at some point.

“People today don’t realize how easy it is to clone a burner phone,” she said.

She said a short recording of someone talking is enough to create a cloned voice.

Dickherber demonstrated the technology by cloning a reporter’s voice using just seconds of audio.

“Less than 10 seconds of your voice is all I need to be able to make a clone of your voice that would fool anyone,” she said.

Scams like this are not new, Dickherber said, but new and cheap AI tools are making them more sophisticated.

Rachel is among hundreds of thousands of people who lose money to cybercrimes each year.

The FBI reported $16.6 billion in losses to cybercrimes in 2024 alone.

Fight or flght

Aging well coach and Aging Untold co-host Katherine Ambrose said this is one of the most horrifying scam stories she has heard.

“So how this works is they throw you into flight or fright, and so then you’re not even able to think,” Ambrose said.

Dr. Rhea Rogers, a board-certified physician and Aging Untold co-host, said that when you’re in fight-or-flight mode, you’re not trying to stop and reason.

“You’re just in survival mode, basically. So, I think the lesson here is to know that this happens and you have to try to stop,” Rogers said.

“That is difficult, however, because you are reacting,” Rogers said.

Ambrose encouraged anyone who experiences anything like this to contact authorities.

Tips to protect yourself

The Federal Bureau of Investigation warns about criminals altering photos found on social media or other publicly available sites to use as fake proof-of-life photos in virtual kidnapping for ransom scams.

The bureau said criminals pose as kidnappers and provide seemingly real photos or videos of victims along with demands for ransom payments.

• They urge people who post missing person information online to be mindful that scammers might contact you with fake information regarding your loved one.
• Avoid providing personal information to strangers while traveling.
• Establish a code word only you or your loved ones know that you can use to communicate.
• The FBI warns that scammers could portray a false sense of urgency. Stop and think. Do the kidnapper’s claims make sense?
• Screenshot or record proof-of-life photos whenever possible.
• Always attempt to contact your loved one before considering paying any ransom demand.

If you believe you have been a victim of a virtual kidnapping scam, you can report the incident to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.

Learn more from the FBI about common frauds and scams.