Mother Convinced by AI Voice Clone of Daughter in Kidnapping Scam

Mother Convinced by AI Voice Clone of Daughter in Kidnapping Scam

A mother from Arizona was convinced by scammers using an AI voice clone of her daughter in a faked kidnapping attempt. Jennifer DeStefano picked up a call from an unknown number and heard what she believed to be her 15-year-old daughter Brie "sobbing." The voice on the other end of the line said, "mom, I messed up," before a male voice took over and made threatening demands.

According to Ms. DeStefano, the kidnapper threatened to "pop her (Brie) so full of drugs, I'm going to have my way with her, and I'm going to drop her off in Mexico," if she called the police or anybody else. She could also hear her daughter crying in the background and saying, "help me, mom, please help me."

Ms. DeStefano said that she was "100 per cent" convinced by her daughter's voice and never doubted it for one second. The kidnapper demanded $1 million for the daughter's release, which was then lowered to $50,000. Ms. DeStefano realized that her daughter was safe only after a friend called her husband and confirmed that she was okay.

The police are still investigating the scammer who appears to have used artificial intelligence voice clone technology. Such technology has become increasingly competent in recent years in mimicking people's voices and is relatively easy to access and use, with AI tools readily available on the internet.

However, the technology has also raised fears that it could be misused by scammers or people attempting to create deepfake videos. One voice clone startup, Respeecher, warned that it could be "harmful in the wrong hands." In a press release last year, the company said that the widespread attention and adoption of deepfake technologies would accelerate the need to regulate their use.

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