ARIZONA, USA – An American mother has issued a warning about artificial intelligence (AI) after her daughter’s voice was cloned in an elaborate kidnapping scam in which a $1 million ransom was demanded.
Arizona-based Jennifer DeStefano received a call from an unknown number while her 15-year-old daughter Briana was away on a ski vacation.
Fearing something had happened to her daughter, DeStefano answered the call, only to hear Briana’s voice crying for help, claiming she had been kidnapped.
According to People, DeStefano told a local TV station that a man then took over the call, threatening her daughter’s safety if she contacted the police or failed to meet their demands.
The ransom was eventually reduced to $50,000 after DeStefano explained she could not pay the initial sum. As the conversation continued, other parents at a dance studio where DeStefano was present called the police and reached out to her husband.
Within five minutes, they confirmed Briana was safe.
Reflecting on the ordeal, DeStefano expressed her astonishment at the accuracy of the cloned voice, stating, “It was completely her voice. It was her inflexion. It was the way she would have cried.” Briana, equally concerned, told Good Morning America, “I started to wonder, like, if these people were asking to track my mom and pick her up, they could have obviously been putting some information together to try and track me or some of my siblings to actually make this a reality.”
Sinéad Bovell, the founder of Waye, an organisation that educates youth on technology, explained to GMA that acquiring someone’s voice is easier than most people think, especially for those under the age of 25 who have an online presence.
Bovell warned that the use of AI-generated synthetic audio can pose significant challenges for verification and validation processes.
Experts recommend maintaining private social media accounts and being cautious of unknown numbers to prevent such incidents.
Dan Mayo, assistant special agent for the FBI’s Phoenix office, urged potential victims to ask questions that only the person of interest would know, as this can quickly reveal whether the call is a scam.
