You get a phone call at 1 in the morning. It’s your granddaughter, who is currently off at college, and she claims she’s been in a terrible accident and needs money right away.

“Grandma, help me! Help me!” she screams. “Send me money right away or I won’t be able to get home!”

You panic. A million thoughts race through your head. Is my granddaughter OK? What happened to her? How can I send money to get her out of this terrible situation?  

 Before you act, you need to ask yourself, “Am I being scammed?”

Unfortunately, we’re living in a time when it’s easier than ever to mimic someone’s voice using AI technology – it can be done in a matter of minutes. It’s also easy to find out people’s personal information, including their phone number and relationships, and then use it to get money out of their loved ones.

 According to CBS News and the Federal Trade Commission, Americans lost about $9 billion in 2022 due to fraud, an increase of more than 150% in two years.

 A common scam is to clone a family member’s voice, call a parent, grandparent, or another loved one, act like there is an emergency, and request money right away. The emergency could be any number of things, ranging from a car accident to getting arrested or being kidnapped.

 Many people fall for this scam, especially if they are older and unaware that AI voice cloning exists. It’s much easier to trick grandma, who doesn’t know about this nefarious scam, than a young person who grew up with technology and is more cautious and suspicious.

 To protect yourself and your loved ones from falling victim to these voice scams, here are some helpful tips. It’s important, of course, to share these tips with older members of your family as well.

  1. Come up with a secret word or phrase that only you and your family know – and share it in person, not over the phone or email. Then, if you receive a call, you could ask them, “What’s our secret phrase?” before proceeding.
  1. If a call like this comes in, and the person on the other end is yelling, that’s a red flag. It’s harder to distinguish differences between your loved one’s voice and an AI clone if the “person” on the other end is yelling.
  1. Contact the person who is allegedly calling you right away. Send them a text or message them on WhatsApp to see if they’re actually calling you.
  1. If you’re having a hard time reaching that person, contact another loved one in your family to see if they know where that person might be.
  1. If the person requests you send money via a wire transfer, the Cash App, a gift card or some other off-kilter way of sending money, this is another huge red flag. You could say, “I’d be happy to give you cash in person” or something to that effect to throw them off.
  1. Do not pick up the phone if it’s an unknown number, especially if they are trying to initiate a video call. Did you know that scammers can use what’s called “deepfake videos” to create realistic videos of people? The technology is evolving fast, and these are becoming simpler to make and put on Zoom, FaceTime, WhatsApp, etc. Companies have already lost millions of dollars to deepfake video scams.
  1. Do not give out any personal information over the phone.
  1. Do not post your personal information online, especially on social media, which is public. If your personal information is already online, delete it as soon as you can, and use services like DeleteMe or McAfee to go through, find the personal info that’s out there, and delete it for you (note: these services do charge you a fee, but it could be well worth it).
  1. Keep a shared family calendar so everyone is aware of each other’s whereabouts.

As AI technology becomes easier to use and more accurate, it’s critical to stay on top of the latest AI scams. Read the news to find out more information and stay vigilant. Then, you can truly protect yourself and your loved ones, and ensure that you won’t become another victim.