The voice was convincing.
The person who called identified himself as the police, but then another voice entered the line.
“He says: ‘Hello, grandmother. Yes, I got into trouble here. The police say they need some money to free me or they will keep me in jail,” recalls Kevin Crawford.
His mother, Marilyn, had just woke up for the call. And the Senior of Ontario was sure that he was his grandson, Ian, by phone.
They told him that he had been arrested for stealing a car and needed $ 9,000 sent to the police for his release.
Only Ian was not. It was a scam phone so convincing that Kevin and Marilyn wonder if the scammers used artificial intelligence to clone Ian’s voice.
And Crawford says that although the voice sounded slightly different, he convinced it enough to accept paying.
“I was anxious to get the money; I would do anything for my grandchildren,” he said about the 2021 conversation.
It is known in general terms as the “emergency” or “grandfather” scam: the person calling claims to be the victim’s grandson and is in the middle of a crisis, generally saying that a crime has been committed, and that they need money. They instruct Grandfather or pretended that the victim did not tell anyone.
And it has been a successful ploy; The Canadians reported having lost almost $ 3 million to this scam in 2024, according to figures from the Canadian Anti-Franco center.
The emergence of scam defects
In the US, the network of compliance with financial crimes sounded the alarm in a November 2024 reportwarning that such highly realistic “defects” can manufacture what seem to be real events, as a person who does or says something they really did not do or said. “
The report indicates the same family emergency scheme experienced by Crawford in which “scammers can use Deepfake voices or videos to impersonate the family member, friend or other individual confidence of a victim.”
David Common’s voice is cloned by the retired officer of the CIA
Experts suggest that using AI to impede someone is happening more frequent own social means against them.
Keith Elliott, an examiner of certified fraud and private researcher, says it is remarkably easy because people supply the scammers without realizing large amounts of personal information.
Personal video publications, even those years, are being harvested by scammers, which then use the voices.
“In the old days, I would not have put a filler in his front garden and said: ‘take a look.’ Now we have put everything on social networks so that everyone sees it: what I had for lunch, what I had for breakfast, when my children graduate.
The retired officer of the CIA Peter Warmka calls AI a “patio of recreation” for scammers.
“You need three to five seconds of [voice] sample. You can get it from a publication on social networks. You can get it from a phone call. And scammers may appear with five [thousand]10 [thousand]15 [thousand]$ 100,000, $ 200,000 … because [the victim] He believes he is someone who is not. “
How to protect yourself
Warmka suggests having a word or phrase in code with family and friends, so the next time the phone sounds, you can try who is in the other line.
When Crawford received the call, he didn’t know how to ask such questions. And in 30 minutes, a taxi had arrived for her, sent by the scammers and took her to a near CIBC branch in Oshawa, Ontario.
Fortunately for her, a cunning customer service agent marked the transaction. Minutes later, a financial advisor contacted his son before money was transferred.
“I was sick. I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “[It’s] The worst that could happen to anyone. “
After his mother’s experience with the emergency scam, Kevin Crawford has a message for those who use sophisticated technology to take advantage of the elderly.
“I hate these people [who] Direct vulnerable people, “Crawford said.” They are taking thousands and thousands of dollars … [Seniors] I can’t pay the money. That is your retirement. “
