Description: In February 2025, a Colorado woman was scammed by a voice-cloning fraud in which criminals used what sounded like her daughter’s voice to stage a fake kidnapping. Under duress and believing her daughter was in danger, she wired $2,000 to Mexico. The scammers exploited generative AI to simulate the daughter’s voice and manipulated the victim psychologically. Law enforcement could not trace the perpetrators or recover the funds.
Editor Notes: Incident date note: Reporting states that the scam occurred on "a Monday evening in February [2025]"; the incident date of 02/10/2025 is a placeholder until the more precise date might be ascertained.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Unknown voice cloning technology developers developed an AI system deployed by Unknown scammers operating in Mexico , Unknown scammers impersonating daughter of Linda Roan and Unknown scammers, which harmed Linda Roan , Daughter of Linda Roan and General public.
Incident Stats
Risk Subdomain
A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
4.3. Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation
Risk Domain
The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
- Malicious Actors & Misuse
Entity
Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
Human
Timing
The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
Post-deployment
Intent
Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Intentional
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
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Linda Roan was making herself a bowl of soup on a Monday evening in February when her cellphone rang. The call was from a local number, so she answered.
"Mom, I'm OK, but something awful has happened," a young woman sobbed. "I need your he…
Variants
A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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