Published: Just now
Jennifer thought 15-year-old Brie was kidnapped, when the daughter called and cried.
In fact, it was a voice copy created by AI, artificial intelligence.
– I didn’t doubt for a second that it was her, says Jennifer DeStefano.
When the phone rang at her home in Scottsdale, USA, Jennifer DeStefano didn’t want to answer at first. But then she realized that it could be the daughter, who was on a skiing trip.
– I pick up the phone and hear my daughter’s voice saying “Mommy!” and sobs. “Mommy, I’ve been doing it,” she says, crying, Jennifer tells it American local radio station WKYT.
Then a man’s voice breaks in. Jennifer says:
– He said “I have your daughter.” If you call the police, or anyone else, I’ll pump her full of drugs. Then I do what I want with her and dump her in Mexico”.
Jennifer began to shake, while hearing her daughter’s pleading, crying voice saying “help me, mom” in the background.
The man demanded a million dollars in ransom. When Jennifer said she didn’t have that much, he lowered the amount to $50,000.
As it happened, Jennifer had friends around her when the call came. They called the police, and DeStefano’s husband. In four minutes they had managed to get hold of Brie, who was unharmed and wondering what was going on. Then Jennifer got angry and ended the call.
But during the conversation she never doubted that it was really her daughter she was talking to.
– It was exactly her voice. Her tone of voice. The way she would have cried. I didn’t doubt for a second that it was her. That was what was so scary, it shook me completely, she says.
A computer expert at Arizona State University, Subbarao Kambhampati, says that any voice can now be copied from a voice recording as short as three seconds:
– You can’t trust your own ears anymore. With the help of three seconds, they get close to exactly how it sounds, says Kambhampati to the New York Post.
The fraudsters find their victims through social media where people post videos and audio files. They are downloaded and processed using various AI systems.
That’s why you should keep your accounts private, FBI agent Dan Mayo told WKYT.
– They look for profiles that have as much information as possible about you, and when they get hold of it, they go after you, he says.
Jennifer DeStefano didn’t lose any money. But she still feels shaken:
– Afterwards I sat down and broke down. I cried for everything that could have happened. It really felt like it was real.