Criminals use AI to clone voices of loved ones, demanding urgent payments for fake emergencies.

The FBI has issued an urgent warning about a surge in AI-powered voice cloning scams targeting families across America. Criminals harvest voice samples from social media videos and use advanced AI tools to create convincing clones. Victims receive panic-inducing calls from what sounds exactly like their children or grandchildren claiming they're in jail, hospital, or stranded abroad and need immediate money transfers. "The technology has become so sophisticated that even close family members cannot distinguish the fake voice from the real one," stated the FBI Cyber Division. Experts strongly recommend establishing a secret family code word for emergencies that only family members know. Losses from these AI-powered scams exceeded $2.5 billion in 2024, with elderly victims being particularly targeted.