AI scam nearly cheats mom of $50,000 by cloning daughter’s voice
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A Grand Rapids mother almost lost $50,000 over the weekend due to a new AI scam.
Mary Schat, the mother of a Hope College student, said it was a typical Sunday morning. She had just sat down in her living room to read the news on her phone when an unknown number from Holland called.
"It didn't say potential spam or anything. So. I thought, well, my daughter is in Holland," Schat said. "I better answer it. Maybe this is about her."
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But when Schat picked up the call, she said she heard her daughter's voice mumbled and terrified on the other end.
"I said, 'Dori you have to help me understand you. You need to calm down,'" Schat recalled. "'What's going on?' This continued and she was mumbling something and then I heard, 'They're taking me. They're taking me.'"
That's when Schat said another voice took control of the call. A man, who identified himself as part of a Mexican cartel, told her that her daughter had been in a car crash and that they now had her in their control. Schat said the man then demanded $50,000 for her daughter. The two planned to meet at an area hardware store for the exchange.
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"When it's your own daughter, I'm like, heck yeah. I'm going to give whatever they need. As long as I can. And that's why I was panicking. I was like I can't get $50,000 right now," she said. "I was scanning the room looking for my keys. I was ready to go to the ATM machine. I was ready to go to the neighbors to see if they would go with me."
While Schat continued to negotiate with the caller, her husband called area dispatch. He was told that the call was most likely a scam and was advised to call their daughter. Luckily, in this case, their daughter was safe and at her apartment along the lakeshore.
"It was definitely her voice. A mother knows her daughter's voice and her daughter's crying," Schat said, still dumbfounded with how her daughter's voice could be replicated and manipulated so easily.
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The Better Business Bureau calls this type of scam voice cloning . According to the BBB, technology has advanced enough that software can now replicate someone's voice just by sampling a small audio recording of their victim. In many cases, those audio samples come from social media posts.
"I thought I was very aware of these hoaxes and these scams," Schat said. "It was completely terrifying. (I thought) how is this happening to me?"
The BBB said to avoid falling for the hoax, people should resist the urge to act immediately. If and when in doubt, don't send money. Try to contact the person or people in question or tied up in the scam before taking other steps.
