As artificial intelligence continues to advance, so do scams. According to WBTV, these advanced scam calls can now even mimic your loved ones.
These calls use artificial intelligence and currently pose a threat to North Carolina residents. They learn to mimic the voices of loved ones and then use those voices to pretend they have been kidnapped. Take Terri-Rae Elmer’s case for example she says when she picked up the phone she heard “high pitched, screaming, ‘Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, you have to help me. I’m so scared. I don’t know what to do.’ And it sounded like my older daughter. And then a man comes on. He said: ‘You’re going to give me $5,000 or I’m going to hold the phone up and you can listen while I start cutting your daughter’s fingers off one by one’.”
Elmer was lucky, the caller ended up telling her he was nearby. Hearing this she realized it was fake because her daughter was out of state. This realization saved her a lot of money.
The FBI’s Unit Cheif for the International Violent Crime Unit, Michael Peasley, does have advice for those who get a call like one of these. He says “The first thing we tell people is before you do anything, hang up the phone and try to contact your loved one.”
He also adds that if you cannot contact your loved ones you should ask questions to the caller. Furthermore, you should share locations with family members to make sure they are safe at all times. These are some simple measures you can take to prevent your family from falling for these scam calls.
