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What happened

In a demonstration highlighting the rising threat of AI-driven fraud, technology experts utilized cloning software to create an AI-generated voice of ABC7 Consumer Investigative Reporter Jason Knowles. By using a short audio clip from a broadcast, the software produced a realistic recording of Knowles claiming he had been in a car accident while on vacation in Mexico and urgently needed money for medical treatment. Although Knowles never said these words, the simulation illustrated how easily the technology can be weaponized to conduct convincing imposter scams.

According to Greag Bohl, chief data officer with Transaction Network Services, scammers can now replicate a person's voice using as little as three seconds of audio, often extracted from social media platforms like TikTok or even a user's personal voicemail. These AI-generated voice clones are being used to deceive family members and friends by framing the fake calls as emergency situations. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has identified voice cloning as a significant evolution of the imposter scam, which has remained the agency's top reported fraud category for several years. Experts warn that this technology is low-cost and accessible, with the potential for increasingly sophisticated attacks, including live, real-time voice synthesis. To mitigate these risks, authorities advise the public to exercise caution regarding the amount of personal audio content shared on social media, as bad actors actively trawl these platforms to harvest the necessary data for cloning.