AI voice cloning scams: how to tell if it's really your family calling

The scam is old: a call from a loved one in trouble (a crash, an arrest, a kidnapping, stranded abroad) who needs money fast and begs you not to tell anyone. What is new is the voice. With a short clip of someone talking, taken from a video they posted or a voicemail greeting, cheap software can produce speech that sounds like them. The FTC warned in 2023 that when the scammer calls, “he’ll sound just like your loved one” (FTC consumer alert, March 2023).

A typical call goes like this:

1. A few seconds of a familiar voice, crying or panicked: “Mom, I messed up.”
2. A second person takes over: a “police officer”, “lawyer” or, in virtual kidnapping calls, a kidnapper.
3. A demand for bail, legal fees or ransom, by gift card, wire, crypto, payment app or cash handed to a courier.
4. Pressure to act now and keep it secret, often with a reason (“there is a gag order”).

The FBI reports that scammers also use doctored photos and videos as fake “proof of life” in virtual kidnapping calls, and that voice cloning is spreading to calls that imitate friends and other relatives, not just grandchildren. In 2025 the FBI received more than 22,000 complaints with an AI element and $893,346,472 in losses; victims reported over $5 million lost specifically to voice-cloned “distress” calls (2025 IC3 Annual Report). Most AI losses were in investment scams using fake celebrity videos, covered in investment and crypto scams.

The FBI’s first tip is to “create a secret word or phrase with your family to verify their identity” (FBI PSA I-120324-PSA, December 2024). How to make one that works:

• Choose something nobody could guess or find online: not a pet’s name, street, school or anything in a social media post. A random pair of words (“purple tractor”) is good.
• Share it in person or on a call you started, never by text or in a group chat that could be read later.
• Agree how to use it: the person calling in an emergency says it without being asked. If the caller cannot give it, hang up and call back.
• Include grandparents, teenagers and anyone who might wire money for the family.
• Change it if it is ever used or shared.

• The loved one speaks only briefly, then someone else does the talking.
• The caller wants payment that cannot be reversed: gift cards, a wire, cryptocurrency, a Bitcoin ATM or cash collected at your door.
• You are told not to tell anyone, including other family members or bank staff.
• The caller ID shows a familiar number. Caller ID is easy to fake, so it proves nothing.
• Small oddities: answers that do not quite fit your questions, a flat tone, or unusual word choice. The FBI suggests listening closely to tone and word choice, but a good clone may have none of these, so do not rely on spotting it.

Ask a question only the real person would know, and that is not online: what you had for dinner together last week, not their birthday.

• The FBI suggests limiting public videos and audio of yourself and making social media accounts private, with followers you know.
• Scammers need to know who your relatives are. People-search sites list exactly that: names, ages, addresses and relatives. Removing those listings is free; see how to remove your info from data broker sites.
• Banks that use voice recognition to verify you can also be fooled by clones. Where you can, switch to an app prompt or a PIN instead, and use two-factor authentication.
• Talk to older relatives specifically; the grandparent version is still the most common. Our elder fraud guide has a checklist for families.

Call the company you paid through immediately and ask it to stop or reverse the payment; the first call for each method is in what to do if you sent money to a scammer. Then report it at IC3.gov and ReportFraud.ftc.gov. If a courier collected cash, also call local police; couriers are sometimes caught on the next pickup. More in the scams hub.