A San Francisco woman is hoping to raise awareness around AI scams after losing thousands to someone claiming they had kidnapped her daughter.
Deborah Del Mastro received a phone call earlier this month from an unknown individual who claimed they had taken her adult daughter Sarah, demanding money in exchange for her return.
She recalled the individual telling her they had “someone here that you need to talk to” before hearing her daughter’s voice over the phone.
“I hear, my daughter’s voice — sobbing, trying to breathe, having a panic attack,” Del Mastro recounted. “And [the voice] says, ‘I’m so sorry, Mom. I am so scared. I’m so sorry.'”
The caller then demanded Del Mastro wire $5,400 to multiple locations in Mexico.
Del Mastro phoned her daughter after wiring the money, only to learn she was actually safe and at work as usual. It was then Del Mastro said she realized she had been scammed.
AI capabilities now make it simple for scammers to replicate voices using just a snippet of sound.
Erin West, founder of Operation Shamrock, an organization focused on combating the scam industry, explained the technology in an interview with ABC station KGO.
“What they can do with just a few seconds of your voice [is] they can clone it, and they can essentially produce sound that sounds exactly like you,” West said. “When we get something that raises our anxiety and requires immediate action, and that immediate action requires the movement of money, we need to know, ‘Red flag, this is a scam.'”
Del Mastro hopes to raise awareness around scams like the one she fell victim to.
“I am a Navy veteran, and I’m usually very good in a crisis … and I totally, totally believed this guy had my daughter,” she said.