An elderly man living in California fell victim to a $25,000 fraud due to the misuse of artificial intelligence voice technology.

This old man named “Anthony” panicked enormously when he received a call from the fraudster. cheat, He told Anthony that his son was in a car accident and hit a pregnant woman. Therefore, he stated that he urgently needed money. Thanks to AI speech technology, the scammer used a voice so realistic that Anthony believed the person on the phone was really his son.

They asked for bail money from his father in his son’s voice

The incident started with Anthony’s first phone call that his son was involved in the accident. Then a second call came, widening the scope of the scam. This time Someone claiming to be his son’s attorney told Anthony he needed $9,200 for his son’s bail. he declared. Otherwise, his son would remain in jail for 45 days. Anthony tried to call his son to see if the situation was real, but the phone kept going to voicemail.

Anthony panicked and went to the bank and withdrew the money. To avoid suspicion, he said the money was needed for the installation of solar panels. When he got home, his daughter called him and asked him to call his attorney, Michael Roberts. The person on the other end of the line said someone would come pick up the money via Uber. Anthony handed the money in an envelope to the Uber driver.

Although Anthony realized the situation, it was too late.

Shortly afterwards, another alleged lawyer, Mark Cohen, called Anthony and told him that his son had hit him. The pregnant woman’s injuries worsened and bail was increased from $15,800 to $25,000 reported. The process caused Anthony to panic again, and eventually both Anthony and his daughter realized they had been scammed.

While Anthony stated that the biggest reason they were scammed was because the voice of the person on the phone was the same as his son’s, Detective Chelsea Saeger emphasized that the use of artificial intelligence-enabled voice technologies in such fraud makes people more vulnerable.

Although Anthony says he is ashamed of what he has experienced, he hopes this experience will be a lesson to others.