How AI helped criminals in $1 million kidnapping scam

Scammers used AI to clone the voice of a teenager (Representational image)

Artificial intelligence helped a scammer clone the voice of a teenager so accurately, even her own mother was deceived by it. A woman from Arizona claims that con artists used AI to clone the voice of her daughter in a fake kidnapping scam. Jennifer DeStefano spoke about the hair-raising incident to WKYT, describing what went down after she received a call from an unknown number.

DeStefano said she was shocked to hear her daughter crying on the other end when she picked up the call. Her 15-year-old daughter Brie was on a ski trip when she received the call.

“I pick up the phone, and I hear my daughter’s voice, and it says, ‘Mom!’ and she’s sobbing,” the Arizona mum recounted. She grew increasingly scared when her daughter’s voice was replaced by a man’s who informed her that he had kidnapped Brie.

This man gets on the phone, and he’s like, ‘Listen here. I’ve got your daughter,’” DeStefano said. “You call the police, you call anybody, I’m going to pop her so full of drugs, I’m going to have my way with her, and I’m going to drop her off in Mexico,” the man told DeStefano.

All this while, the terrified mother could hear what sounded like her daughter sobbing in the background. “It was completely her voice,” the Arizona woman said. “It was her inflection. It was the way she would have cried.”

The scammer demanded $1 million as ransom for freeing the teenager.

Luckily, DeStefano realised her daughter had not been kidnapped thanks to a fellow mother, who confirmed Brie was safe and enjoying her ski trip. It turns out, scammers had used AI to clone the 15-year-old’s voice.

Police have now launched an investigation into the case. The scammers are yet to be identified and apprehended.