📞 AI Voice Cloning Scams: The Fake Family Emergency Call

Frank Bravo 0:00
The phone rings at nine at night. It's your daughter's number on the screen, and when you pick it up, she's crying so hard you can barely understand her. There's been an accident. She says she's okay, but there's a police officer, and she needs you to listen carefully and not hang up. And it's her voice. That's the part that hooks you. And I want you to think about that for a second, not a voice. That sort of sounds like her, but it's actually her voice. You've heard me talk about scams before, and I've always told people to be skeptical of phone calls. If something seems a little off, hang up, call back and verify. And that advice still works. But it's gotten a lot harder to follow because the things that used to tell you something was wrong. Your own ear doesn't always work anymore. Today we're going to talk about how AI has made things a lot easier to trick people. And the one simple thing you can do so that you're never caught. Welcome to your Tech Makeover, the podcast that gives you tips and tricks to help you simplify and get more out of the technology in your life. I'm your host, Frank Provo. Today's topic is AI, voice cloning and the scams that go along with it. I'm sure you've heard about them and we're going to talk about how they work. Why the usual advice about listening for something that's off can now totally not be trusted. And the one habit your family can set up in about five minutes, that shuts the whole thing down. This episode is a dinner table conversation with your friends and family disguised as a tech episode. If you take one thing away from today, I want you to go set it up and I'll consider that a win. So listen to this episode all the way through and then find the time to actually do these things. The first question everybody asks me is, where on earth did the scammers get a recording of their kid? That seems like it would be something hard to do, but it's actually easier than you think because the bar is so much lower than the people actually assume that it is. McAfee researchers tested a free online tool. Three out of four seconds of someone talking is enough to produce about an 85% match. Microsoft has shown research that it could actually do it with three second samples. A paid tool is probably even going to be even better at this, and they only cost a few dollars a month, 3 or 4 seconds. That's about it. It's not a hacked phone. It's not a stolen email or a voicemail. It's a video where a person says hello to start. It's a graduation clip, a church livestream, a kid dating their own video game, a voice note to a group chat. Maybe it's somebody business page with a welcome video on it or an Instagram post. That's the part that bothers me most, especially as a parent. Teenagers and young adults are mostly exposing themselves online because their voices are already in dozens of public places, and their phone numbers are usually pretty easy to find. Probably easier than yours. The raw material has been sitting out in the open the whole time, and it only takes a few seconds of it. For years, the standard guidance was to listen for tells. The voice would sound flat or the words would be a little off, or there would be weird pauses or phrases. The reality is, you can't rely on that anymore. Studies have tested whether people can pick out clone voices, and we can't do it reliably, even under calm conditions in a quiet room. Now put the same test to somebody at 9:00 at night who's just been told that their family member is hurt, because the real weapon here is not the AI. It's panic. That's how the call is built. There's an emergency, so you have to act now. It's a family member, so you have to do anything to help them. There's a police officer or a lawyer on the line, so that's a pretty. They tell you not to hang up sometimes in the most cruel one is they tell you not to tell anybody else because the kid is embarrassed and doesn't want anyone else to find out. Every one of those things is designed to keep you from doing the one thing that you know will end the call, which is hanging up and dialing back the real number. The voice is just what gets you to stay on the line long enough. And for that pressure to work, a quick shout out to listeners like you who helped make your tech makeover possible. Your support helps keep this podcast going and I truly appreciate it. Want to contribute? Just click the link in the show notes or visit your Tech Makeover plus as a thank you support. Who give $25 or more will get a $25 off one time consultation with me to help you simplify your tech. Thanks for being part of the Your Tech Makeover community. Now back to what I was saying. So let's talk about the fix, because there has to be a good one. And it's an old fashioned one and it costs nothing to put in place. It's actually very simple. You agree on a word or phrase with your family ahead of time. If someone calls in a crisis, they have to give you that word. It's the FBI's own guidance in this, from public service announcements that they put out in December of 2024. Create a secret word or phrase with your family to verify their identity. Now most people stop there, which is better than nothing, but there's actually more you can do. And it matters more than the word itself. The caller is the one who has to produce the word. You never volunteer it as the person who's answering the call. Here's why the scammer knows families do this. It's out there in the public, right? So when you ask for the word they say, I don't know. They say something like, dad, I can't, I'm shaking, I can't think, please. And you want to help? You want to help the child fill in the blank. It's the pancake thing, right? And now you've handed it to them. The word is gone, and the call keeps going. So the rule in your house should be I ask you answer. If the person on the other end can't produce it for any reason, no matter how good that reason sounds, hang up and call the real number back. If you think about picking one, maybe it's something that can't be researched. Maybe it's not your pet's name, not the street you live on. Not a birthday. Not your favorite team. Anything that's been in a photo or caption or a profile that should be offline. A short phrase, probably 4 or 5 words, beats a single word, and it should be clear enough that even a frightened person can still remember it. Share it in person. Don't text it. Don't email. Don't put it in a family group chat. Say it out loud to each other a couple of times a year so it doesn't go stale. You can even make it a game when you get together, and a lot of you are going to get this call before you've had this conversation. So here's what to do if you haven't set this up yet. So first hang up, not ask more questions. Just hang up. That's uncomfortable. I know that because it feels like you're hanging up on someone you know, and I understand, but the cost of about 30s will actually end this scam. Then call back the number in your contacts that you already have saved for them, not the number that just called you, not the number they gave you because the caller ID looked right. A caller ID can be faked, and if you can't reach them, call someone else. Maybe it's their roommate, a partner, a sibling, the friend they hang out with most. Someone will know where they are. In about almost every case, the person who is on the call is actually fine the whole time. And that's something you have to remember in all of this. Finally, you want to listen for the ask. Remember, real emergencies don't come with instructions on how to pay. If the police officer or the lawyer's on the line asking for a wire transfer cryptocurrency, a payment app, or, you know, going and buying gift cards and reading the numbers off the back. Well, there's your answer. That's not how bail works. And it's I did a whole episode on these sorts of scams before, and if you've listened to my podcast, you would have heard me say that if you've heard that episode, you know, go remember what I talked about. And if you haven't, look in the back catalog and you'll find it. And if you can't find it, let me know and I'll point you to it. The gift card one is the one where this always goes, and it's one that I'm going to talk about in two weeks, because there's a second gift card scam that's been quietly getting worse and most people haven't heard of it. So keep an eye out for that. Okay, let's wrap this up. We've talked about what you should do and what you should take away from this conversation. First, pick a word that you know that your family will understand and get the next time Thanksgiving's right around the corner. So if you don't live in the same house, it would be a perfect time to do it. It takes about five minutes at dinner. It's hard, and it's hard as it may be making the hang up. The default is the thing to do and tell your family that's what you're going to do. So nobody's offended. If this actually happens, then call back the number that is saved, not the number that called you, and treat any payment demands as the tale of this not being real, but it's actually being a scam. Especially those gift card wire transfer or crypto asks. I know this episode is a little heavier than I mostly talk about, but this is where five minutes of conversation can protect the people that you care about. And there's no app to buy in, nothing to install. So have that conversation. Tell your parents. Tell your kids. Tell them why. Because the why is what makes them remember this at nine at night. Or even better yet, pass this episode on to someone else so that they can hear it for themselves. Have you set this up with your friends and family already, or is this the first time you've actually heard about this? And if you've gotten one of those calls, and I'd really like to know how it opened, because knowing the script that scammers use can help the next person recognize it. So let me know. And as always, if you have ideas for topics you'd like me to cover, please feel free to contact me via email at Frank at your Tech makeover.com. That's it for now. Thanks for listening to your tech makeover, if you haven't already. Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast so that you don't miss an episode. You can visit your Tech makeover.com to do so, and you can subscribe to my Substack newsletter while you're there, so you're alerted of new content as it's posted. See more information about each episode and more information about me. Until next time, I'm Frank Bravo, and this has been your tech makeover.