How con artists are using AI voice cloning to upgrade the grandparent scam

The dependable was convincing.

The caller identified himself arsenic police, but past different dependable came connected the line. 

"He goes, 'Hi Grandma. Yeah, I got successful occupation here. The constabulary accidental they request immoderate wealth to merchandise maine oregon they're going to support maine successful jail,'" Kevin Crawford recalls.

His mother, Marilyn, had conscionable been awakened by the call. And the Ontario elder was definite it was her grandson, Ian, connected the phone. 

She was told he'd been arrested for stealing a car and that helium needed $9,000 sent to constabulary for his release.

Only, it wasn't Ian. It was a scam telephone telephone truthful convincing that Kevin and Marilyn wonderment if fraudsters utilized artificial quality to clone Ian's voice.  

And Crawford says that adjacent though the dependable sounded somewhat different, it convinced her capable to hold to wage up.

"I was anxious to get the wealth out; I'd bash thing for my grandchildren," she said of the speech from 2021.

It's known broadly arsenic the "emergency" oregon "grandparent" scam: the caller claims to beryllium the victim's grandchild and is successful the mediate of a crisis, usually saying that a transgression has been committed — and they request money. They instruct the grandparent oregon intended unfortunate to archer nary one.

And it's been a palmy ploy; Canadians reported losing astir $3 cardinal to this scam successful 2024, according to figures from the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.  

The emergence of deepfakes successful scamming

In the U.S., the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network sounded the alarm successful a November 2024 report, informing that specified "highly realistic" deepfakes "can manufacture what look to beryllium existent events, specified arsenic a idiosyncratic doing oregon saying thing they did not really bash oregon say."

The study flags the aforesaid household exigency strategy experienced by Crawford successful which "scammers whitethorn usage deepfake voices oregon videos to impersonate a victim's household member, friend, oregon different trusted individual."

WATCH | David Common's dependable gets cloned by retired CIA officer, Peter Warmka: 

Experts suggest that utilizing AI to impersonate idiosyncratic is happening much often, according to the anecdotes astatine a planetary fraud league convened by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners successful 2024. Thousands of investigators and different officials discussed however the emergence of artificial quality tin beryllium utile successful investigations but that it's besides utilized proficiently by scammers to people the astir susceptible — and usage their ain societal media posts against them.

Keith Elliott, a certified fraud examiner and backstage investigator, says it's remarkably casual due to the fact that radical unwittingly proviso fraudsters with immense amounts of idiosyncratic information.

Personal video posts, even those years old, are being harvested by scammers, who past usage AI to replicate the voices. 

"In the aged days, you wouldn't person enactment a filing furniture connected your beforehand tract and said, 'Have a look.' Now we've enactment it each retired determination connected societal media for everybody to spot — what I had for lunch, what I had for breakfast, erstwhile my kids graduate. And we're each blameworthy of it."

Retired CIA serviceman Peter Warmka calls AI a "playground" for scammers.

"You request 3 to 5 seconds of a [voice] sample. You tin get it from a societal media post. You tin get it from a telephone call. And the scammers tin marque disconnected with 5 [thousand], 10 [thousand], 15 [thousand], $100,000, $200,000 … due to the fact that [the victim] believes it's idiosyncratic that it's not."

How to support yourself

Warmka suggests having a codification connection oregon operation with household and friends, truthful the adjacent clip the telephone rings, you tin trial who's connected the different line. 

When Crawford got the call, she didn't cognize to inquire those types of questions. And wrong 30 minutes, a taxi had arrived for her, sent by the scammers, and drove her to a adjacent CIBC subdivision successful Oshawa, Ont.  

Luckily for her, an astute lawsuit work cause flagged the transaction. Minutes later, a fiscal advisor contacted her lad earlier immoderate wealth was transferred.

"I was conscionable sick. I didn't cognize what to do," she said. "[It's] the worst happening that could ever hap to anybody."

After his mother's acquisition with the exigency scam, Kevin Crawford has a connection for those utilizing blase exertion to instrumentality vantage of seniors.

"I hatred these radical [who] people susceptible people," Crawford said. "They're taking thousands and thousands of dollars … [Seniors] can't spend to wage retired the money. That's their retirement."