Description: Boone County, Missouri, authorities said a resident received a call on July 17, 2026, that displayed the resident's daughter's name and number and used an AI-generated imitation of her voice to claim she had been kidnapped at gunpoint. A second voice demanded ransom. A coordinated police response located the daughter safely in Jefferson City, unaware of the call; no payment or arrest was reported.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Deepfake technology developers , Voice cloning technology developers , Synthetic media generation technology developers and Synthetic audio generation technology developers developed an AI system deployed by Unidentified perpetrators of Boone County, Missouri, AI voice kidnapping scam , Scammers , Synthetic media creators , Deepfake creators , Extortionists and Voice cloning impersonation scammers, which harmed Boone County, Missouri, resident targeted by alleged AI voice kidnapping scam , Daughter of Boone County, Missouri, resident targeted by alleged AI voice kidnapping scam , Boone County Sheriff's Office , Law enforcement , Victims of deepfake abuse , Targets of scams , Public safety , Epistemic integrity , Privacy , Victims of voice cloning impersonation scams and Families.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Deepfake technology , Voice cloning technology , Synthetic media generation technology and Synthetic audio generation technology
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1615
Report Count
2
Incident Date
2026-07-17
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
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Boone County Sheriff's Office - MO post-incident response
Swatting Incident Information
On 07/17/2026, the Boone County Sheriff’s Office responded to an incident that involved a victim receiving a phone call from a person they believed to be their daughter. The caller ID even showed their daughte…
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A scam that makes people believe their loved ones are in danger using artificial intelligence has hit Boone County, and the sheriff's office is warning people after a resident reported a call.
According to a Facebook po…
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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