LOS ANGELES — A man was scammed out of $25,000 after fraudsters used artificial intelligence to imitate his son’s voice and trick him into sending money.
“I feel like a fool, but I don’t care,” said Anthony, who did not want to share his last name. “I want to help anyone I can help.”
It all started when he received a phone call that he thought was from his son.
Anthony believed his son had had an accident and hit a pregnant woman who was rushed to the hospital.
After a short conversation he hung up. He received another call from someone named Michael Roberts, who claimed to be a lawyer. He then told Anthony he needed $9,200 for his son’s bail.
“He said, ‘You need to get $9,200 as soon as possible if you want your son to get out of jail. Otherwise, he has to stay in jail for 45 days,'” Anthony recalled.
Anthony said he tried to call his son back to verify what happened, but the call went to voicemail. He assumed it was because he was actually in prison.
Anthony went to the bank to get the money. To avoid suspicion, he told the bank that the money was for the installation of solar panels, and the bank approved the request.
When Anthony got home, he asked his daughter to call Michael Roberts.
“She says, ‘We have the money. What do we do now?'” Anthony said. “He said, ‘Don’t worry, someone will be at the house. It could be an Uber car any minute.’ And with that, there is an Uber car.”
Surveillance footage shows his daughter taking the money into a manila envelope. They checked the license plate and the driver to make sure it was a legitimate Uber driver. Anthony’s daughter handed over the money and the driver leaves. Then the phone rings again.
This time the caller identified himself as Mark Cohen, another attorney involved in the case. The caller said the pregnant woman had died.
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“Bail has been increased. Mark Cohen says another $15,800 to $25,000,” Anthony said.
They repeat everything again: take more money from the bank and give it to another Uber driver who picked up the second package.
Anthony said when things calmed down, they started searching and researching on the Internet. His daughter then told him the bad news.
“Dad, I hope I’m wrong. I think you just got scammed out of $25,000.” It didn’t even occur to me until she said those words,” Anthony recalled.
Old scam with a new twist
According to the police, this form of scam is not new. Variations on this have been around for years, but they say new technology can make calls and notifications seem more realistic.
“The scammers are getting smarter and more sophisticated,” said LAPD Detective Chelsea Saeger. “They use social media and technology to create these very believable and compelling stories, and people actually believe they are talking to a grandchild or a government official.”
In this case, Anthony said that when he first picked up the phone, it sounded exactly like his son.
“It was his voice. It was absolutely his voice,” he said. “There was no doubt about it.”
Police say this is a new twist. Artificial intelligence, AI, can be used to imitate someone’s voice, and it sounds like the real thing.
“They call, and if you answer and it’s a scammer, there’s silence,” Saeger said. “They want you to say ‘hello’ or ‘is anyone there?’ All they need is three seconds of your voice to input it into AI and clone it.”
Thieves can also use social media accounts to obtain information about someone.
“They will go through your video posts and if you or a loved one is speaking, they can catch your voice that way,” Saeger said.
Detectives don’t want to give too much information about this ongoing investigation, but they say that in these cases, drivers hired through Uber or Lyft are typically not involved in this scam. They are not aware that they are even part of it.
In this case, Anthony says the callers kept conveying a sense of urgency. They tried to keep him off balance.
“They moved me so quickly,” Anthony said. “I never had a chance to call a second time unless I told them, ‘Wait a minute. I’m putting this whole thing on hold. I want to talk to my son. I don’t care if he’s in the is in prison.’ or where he is, I want to talk to my son.” You don’t think like that.’
Police say you should never send money to someone you don’t know, even if they claim it is a government agency or financial institution. These places will never call and ask you to send money immediately.
“Recently, they have asked victims to deposit money into crypto ATMs or transfer money to crypto accounts,” Saeger said. “So if you get a call and they ask you to do one of those things, that’s an instant red flag, and it’s probably a scam.”
Anthony says he is ashamed, but hopes he can help others by telling his story.
“That’s my message to everyone watching: to protect themselves and their own families,” he said. “That’s why I do this.”
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