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Chapter 1: What terrifying scenario does AI voice cloning create for families?
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Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And the story I have for you today is one that I want you to listen to every single second of. Because by the time it's over, you're going to want to call every person you love and do one simple thing that could save you from one of the most terrifying experiences imaginable. This is about something that's happening right now to real people.
And as technology gets more advanced, so do the criminals looking to exploit it. Lots of people have no idea that this is even possible. And the real unsettling part? How cheap and accessible the tools to do this actually are. And how fast they're evolving. This is the story about how hearing the voice of someone you love could be the beginning of a nightmare. and what you can do to fight back.
Jennifer DiStefano is one of those moms who's always on the move. She and her husband have four kids in close age, and most weekends that means splitting up just to keep up. So on this particular late Friday afternoon, January 20th, 2023, while Jennifer is in Scottsdale, Arizona, swinging by their 13-year-old daughter's dance studio to pick her up after a lesson...
Her husband is about 150 miles north in the mountains with their youngest son and their 15-year-old daughter, Brianna, so she can do some training for ski races. Now, Jennifer is getting out of her car in the studio parking lot when her phone rings. It's an unknown number, and she almost lets it go to voicemail, but unknown calls can be from hospitals.
And with Brianna on a mountain, it's too risky to ignore it, so she picks up. And it is Brianna on the line, but she's crying, barely holding it together. And she tells Jennifer, Mom, I messed up. Now, Jennifer doesn't panic. She's thinking that maybe Brianna got hurt skiing. So she's like, you know, it's okay, Bri, calm down. What's going on? What's wrong?
And then she hears a man's voice cut in, telling Brianna to lay down and put her head back. And then suddenly she hears her daughter cry out, Mom, these bad men have me. Help me. Help me. And then the man fully takes the phone and he tells Jennifer that he has her daughter.
And if she calls the police or breathes a word of this to anyone, they will never see her again because he is going to drug her, sexually assault her, and leave her for dead in Mexico. She can barely hear what he's saying because all she can focus on is her daughter in the background yelling and pleading until her voice goes muffled like she's being pulled away from the phone.
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Chapter 2: How did Jennifer DiStefano's family encounter a virtual kidnapping?
Now, this whole ordeal lasted about four minutes. But when Jennifer thinks about the damage that it did cause and what it could have caused... it's chilling. And if there had been someone to come get her, police wouldn't have been hot on her trail because, by the way, they never showed up. I guess since the dispatcher had already concluded it was a scam, they didn't even bother to send anyone.
Which is kind of Wild to me, because I don't care how many of these calls that they've been hearing about, this one sounds extreme. Like, even if it started as a scam, God only knows where this was headed. Like, what was the end game? Was it all a test? Would someone have shown up for her? I don't know, and neither does Jennifer.
But when she followed up with law enforcement later that night, she was basically told, no harm, no foul. They said there was no actual crime committed. No one was physically kidnapped or harmed. No money exchanged hands. It was deemed a prank. That is not enough for Jennifer. She stays up all night trying to answer the questions running through her mind. How did they get her daughter's voice?
Were they being watched? Had they been targeted? Were they in any danger actually then or still? As she told our reporter Nina, she went through every piece of Brianna's digital footprint that she could find. Brianna's Instagram, her TikTok account. But Brianna's Instagram and her TikTok accounts are private and she only has a few dozen followers.
And while there are a couple of like athletics related things of her out there, there is nothing that comes close to explaining what Jennifer heard on that call. So still, to this day, she hasn't been able to figure out how they did it. But what she does find is a vast community of people who have been through something similar.
Because when Jennifer posted a warning about what happened to her on Nextdoor, the responses flood in. Some people were nasty and said that Jennifer was just being gullible. But lots came back with their own versions of this same story. This happened to me. This happened to my parents, to my sibling.
One of the dance studio moms said that her sister had recently been scammed out of $1,500 by the same type of call. A friend of Jennifer's got a call that sounded exactly like her eight-year-old son begging for his life after she had just tucked him into bed. The caller even used his private nickname. And this kid didn't even have a phone or social media or any presence online.
So who the hell knows how they managed to replicate his voice? I mean, Jennifer's own mother had gotten a call from someone pretending to be Jennifer's brother. But her mom is hard of hearing, so she kept asking the caller to repeat himself. And eventually she just told him, my son would never talk to me like this. Go find your real mother. And she hung up on him.
And her mom didn't even think to mention it until Jennifer's whole ordeal happened. And these weren't just fake kidnappings. Jennifer heard about fake arrests, fake medical emergencies, you name it. Different scenarios, same playbook. A loved one's voice on the other end of the line claiming to be in some kind of crisis. So what actually happens on these calls?
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Chapter 3: What tactics do scammers use to exploit panic during virtual kidnappings?
As our world moves at a lightning-fast pace, the human element of familiarity that lays foundation to our social fabric of what is known and what is truth is being revolutionized with AI. Some for good and some for evil. No longer can we trust seeing is believing or I heard it with my own ears or even the sound of your own child's voice.
I ask you, when your mother calls, are you going to hang up on her and call her back to make sure it's her? When your child calls in need of help, will you end the call and say, I don't believe it's really you? Is this our new normal? Is this the future we are creating by enabling the abuses of artificial intelligence without consequence and without regulation?
So far, regulation hasn't caught up. For the first time, all 50 states introduced AI-related legislation in 2025. But even with that movement, there is no clear roadmap. At the federal level, administrations are putting up and then pulling back guardrails like some kind of chess piece that will play well with whoever they're trying to appeal to or will make them the most money.
No one is actually giving a shit about the people who are being hurt by this new technology that operates pretty much unregulated. One of the only major AI related laws Congress has actually managed to pass so far. targets fake images. There is no comprehensive federal law specifically governing AI voice cloning. In a lot of ways, it is still like the Wild West.
By the time anyone figures out how to respond to one version of this, the technology has already moved on, getting cheaper, faster, and scariest of all, harder to detect. And it's especially hard If you're not clear-headed. And that's what they're counting on. Hearing someone you love screaming for help, that panic that you feel isn't a side effect of the scam. It's the whole point.
So what can we do? Here is what the FBI told us. And every situation is different, so there is no perfect playbook for it. But if you think your loved one is in real danger, call 911. If it turns out to be a scam, you'll sort that out after. When in doubt, call. At the same time, you have to try to stay calm and slow down. The entire scam runs on your fear. They need you scared.
They need you reacting and moving fast for it to work. They don't want you questioning their story. But these calls are about money. And as long as they think that there is a chance you'll pay, they will probably stay on the line. So use that time. Reach out to your loved one on a separate device using a number that you already have, not one that the caller gives you.
Now, if you're with someone, have them do it while you keep the caller talking. That's how Jennifer's situation ended as quickly as it did. According to the National Cybersecurity Alliance, you can also try asking the caller to switch to a video call. Most scammers don't have both a voice clone and a video deepfake ready at once. At least not yet. But even that won't be foolproof forever.
And if they send you anything, photos, audio, proof of life, screenshot it or save it before it disappears because it may be the only evidence they leave behind. But you know what they say. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
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