Is that really your family calling?
Scammers can copy a voice from a short video. First, a quick guess. Then answer this call, listen, decide what you'd do, and see what gave it away.
What they say
Show transcript
Everything the caller says, word for word:
What do you do?
Your phone is ringing
Tap the green button to answer. Turn your sound on: the caller's voice is read by your phone's own voice, so it won't sound exactly like a person. A real cloned voice would.
No sound? Every word the caller says also appears as text under "What they say", and in the transcript there.
How to protect your family
A word only your family knows. If a call asks for money, ask for the word. A cloned voice can't guess it.
Call the number you already have saved for them, not the one that called you. If they're fine, they'll answer.
A few seconds of someone talking in a public video can be enough to copy their voice.
"Don't tell anyone" and "right now" together are the pattern of almost every family emergency scam.
Sources: Wang and others, Microsoft Research, "Neural Codec Language Models are Zero-Shot Text to Speech Synthesizers" (VALL-E, 2023): a model that copies a voice from a 3-second recording. McAfee, "The Artificial Imposter" (2023): three seconds of audio was enough for about an 85% voice match; it advises a codeword agreed in advance, or a question only the real person could answer. US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), consumer alert on AI in family emergency scams (2023): don't trust the voice, hang up and call the person on a number you know. US FBI public service announcement I-120324-PSA on generative AI fraud (December 2024): create a secret word or phrase with your family. The call, the names, the number and the amounts on this page are invented.