After the release of an open letter calling for a break in the development of artificial intelligence, which had the signature of Elon Musk, the use of these technologies has reached an even more frightening new height.
An Arizona mother has reported to local authorities that scammers cloned her daughter's voice using an AI to demand a $1 million ransom payment.
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The mother, named Jennifer DeStefano, claimed that she actually believed it was her daughter, Brie DeStefano, aged just 15, upon hearing the cloned voice and that it scared her to the core.
This practice has become increasingly common, with scammers using the technique of forgery caller ID to make it look like a relative of the victim has been kidnapped and demand money in exchange for their release.
Jennifer said that she received the call from an unknown number and that, after almost letting it go to voicemail, she decided to answer it when she remembered that her daughter was away on a pleasure trip.
When answering the call, the woman says she heard her daughter's cloned voice saying that she "had gotten into trouble", in addition to crying and sobbing, which left Jennifer in a panic.
DeStefano further claims that the entire time she could hear “her daughter” in the background, pleading, “Help me, Mom. Please help me. Help me”, while sobbing non-stop.
It was at that moment that the fake hijacker demanded the ransom payment. Initially, he asked for an amount of $1 million, but later lowered it to $50,000 when Jennifer claimed that she didn't have the money.
The nightmare finally ended when the terrified mother, who was next to her other daughter at the time, received help from another woman who was nearby.
The woman helped Jennifer by calling 911 and her husband, Brie's father. In doing so, they confirmed that the teenager was safe and well on her journey.
Even after the scare, Jennifer DeStefano still cited how faithful the voice she heard was. “It was completely her voice,” she said. “It was her intonation and the way she would cry,” she stated.
So far it is not known how the bandits had access to data about Brie's voice. However, preliminary investigations were able to conclude, based on an analysis made on the call, that the voice Jennifer heard was actually created by an Artificial Intelligence.
The call “high-tech phone scam” It is an increasingly common practice, especially in the United States.
To protect yourself against situations like this, you need to be aware and, if it happens, the way out is to remain calm and contact the competent authorities. Furthermore, no demands of the alleged kidnappers are to be met.
Graduated in History and Human Resources Technology. Passionate about writing, today he lives the dream of acting professionally as a Content Writer for the Web, writing articles in different niches and different formats.
