A frantic call to 9-11 was posted on social media. In it, a man is saying things that – if true – were damaging to his reputation and would make his clients reluctant to do business with him. It was a PR nightmare. He called NCAVF and said, “I did not make these 911 calls. It’s not me. Someone pretending to be me did this. Our marketing team and my lawyer are trying to figure out how to respond.”
He hired me to clone his voice and create a fabricated phone conversation, in order to show how easy it is to make voice clones. He wanted to prove that it was not him who made the call.
We were able to help him using tools readily available.
In fact, you can now clone a voice with as little as 30 seconds of audio. If you have a longer recording, that’s even more effective.
Many people are trying to run scams these days using voice cloning. You could receive a call from a loved one who is in an emergency and needs money.
Make sure you establish with your family a code word that you and your loved ones can use to communicate they are in danger. Also, educate the older members of your family because they are the most likely to be unaware that these kinds of scams are possible.
Keep in mind: If the person is yelling, that’s because it’s harder to decipher their voice. This is a sign it could be a scam.
Try to contact a mutual party to see if that person is OK.
Voice cloning will only become more prevalent as the technology gets better. Do what you can to protect yourself, and you will be much less likely to fall victim to a scam.