A call sounds exactly like your son or grandchild. Is it cloned?

The problem

The phone rings. It sounds like your grandson, your daughter or a close friend, and they sound frightened. They say they have had an accident or been arrested, or that something terrible has happened. They need money straight away, and they ask you not to tell anyone.

In that moment, hearing a loved one's voice overrides most doubts. Voice cloning makes the voice more convincing than it used to be, which is why the check needs to be a habit rather than a judgement call.

How it can happen

The FTC explained the technique in March 2023. Scammers can use a voice cloning program, and the only input needed is a short audio clip, which may come from content posted online. When they call, the voice sounds just like your loved one. The caller story is the familiar family emergency, such as a car crash and a night in jail.

In December 2024 the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center described the same risk. Criminals can generate short audio clips of a loved one's voice and use them to suggest a close relative is in a crisis and urgently needs money, or to demand a ransom. The FBI also warns that criminals may use AI audio to impersonate a person to reach their bank accounts.

The payment requests give the scam away. The FTC lists wire transfers, cryptocurrency and gift cards where you read out the numbers and PINs: methods that make the money hard to get back.

How to avoid it

1. Do not trust the voice alone. The FTC says to hang up and call the person on a number you know is theirs.
2. Reach them another way. If you cannot get them, the FTC suggests contacting them through another family member or their friends.
3. Use a family safe word. The FBI recommends agreeing on a secret word or phrase with family to verify identity. Our guide to setting a family safe word explains how.
4. Listen for tone and word choice. The FBI advises this, though a good clone can be hard to catch, so the call-back matters more.
5. Do not send money, gift cards or crypto to people you have only reached by phone or online.
6. Limit what is public. The FBI suggests limiting public images and voice recordings and keeping social media accounts private.
7. Report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and consider ic3.gov.

If the caller says a lawyer or police officer will phone next, that is part of the script. Read more about the older version of this call in the grandchild in trouble article, and for what to do if money or a code was sent, see what to do after you shared a code or gave someone access.

Things to watch

• A frightened caller who says the matter is secret.
• A request for money by gift card, wire or crypto.
• A second person who takes over the call, such as a lawyer.
• A story that leaves no time for you to phone anyone.
• A caller who cannot answer a simple question that only the real person would know.
• A refusal to give the family word, if you have one.

It is reasonable to say to a caller, "I am going to hang up and ring you back." If it was your relative, they will understand. If it was not, you have stopped the scam.