Alright, so check it out. You know how we talk
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Nature engineered for comfort. Before this episode
ends, you're going to hear my voice get replaced
by an AI clone. And I'm betting you won't notice
when it happens. If you do, drop a comment and
tell everyone the exact moment you think I swapped
my voice out. Because right now, a stranger can
lift just a few seconds of your voice from TikTok,
a podcast, even a voicemail, and make your family
believe you're in danger. It's called a virtual
kidnapping scam. And tonight, we're diving into
real stories of people who lived through it.
Parents who heard their children begging for
help. who wired money to save someone who wasn't
really in trouble. Companies that lost millions
because their CEO's voice was cloned. It's happening
everywhere. And the scariest part isn't the technology,
it's how human it sounds. I'm David Green, and
this is Zero Signal Shorts. Remember to like,
subscribe, and follow, and join us every Tuesday
at 6 a .m. Eastern for our full -length deep
dive episodes. says she was targeted in an elaborate
scheme that turned out to be a really sophisticated
AI powered hoax. Tonight 8 on your side is taking
a deeper look into the capabilities of AI and
how you can stay protected. His channel is Nicole
Rogers spoke with a tech consultant and joins
us now live in Tampa with the very latest Nicole
Powell. That tech consultant is not only shedding
light on how you can avoid a scheme like this
happening to you, but also showing some other
areas where predators could be taking advantage
of you. It's a mother's worst nightmare. Hearing
your daughter's crying voice on the other end
of the phone saying something terrible happened.
There is nobody that could convince me that it
was not. I know my daughter's cry. Even though
she's an adult, I still know my daughter's cry.
Sharon Brightwell says the woman on the line
claimed she'd been in a crash, that she hit a
pregnant driver while texting. A person posing
as a lawyer jumped on, saying bail would be $15
,000 in cash. So she gave it to them, but later
got a call from a family friend. She had my daughter
on three -way. And I hear my daughter's f - It
turns out the entire thing was a lie, likely
powered by artificial intelligence. One thing
AI can do, much, much faster than we can, is
learn the patterns of voices. Tech consultant
Joey DeVilla says AI has the capabilities to
mimic not only your voice, but video too. So
how can you spot the red flags? Despite the fact
that they're using AI, all of it is a high -tech
veneer on top of classic con artist schemes.
And the most important one that they use, the
one that works so well in their favor, is urgency.
When I first heard my cloned voice speak, it
sent a chill through me. It wasn't eerie because
it sounded robotic. It was eerie because it didn't.
The pauses were mine. The tone was mine. Even
those half breaths between words were perfectly
familiar. For a moment, I forgot I wasn't listening
to myself. My voice rebuilt by an algorithm.
My voice fingerprint, perfectly forged. A cloned
voice isn't cool tech. It's a weapon. It can
steal, deceive, and terrify. Because if your
voice can be faked, a stranger... can stage your
life. I need to access immediately to secure
your files. Nope, I'm fake. We've detected suspicious
activity on your account. Can you tell me your
login information? Just kidding, I'm fake. These
Miracle Hearing Aids are only $14 .99 today.
Click the link below and order now. Nope, I'm
fake, just like these hearing aids. We just need
to confirm your Medicare number to update your
benefits for this year. No. Not really. Congratulations!
You've won a million dollars. You just have to
pay the small claiming fee today. Nope. I'm fake.
We're raising funds for a sick parishioner. Can
you send me some Apple gift cards? Nope. I'm
fake. Can you believe these concert tickets are
so cheap? No. They are fake, just like all of
this. Most of these scams only work if you respond
quickly and without thinking. Don't fall for
it. Take a moment to assess the situation. Videos
will be made and shared in the hopes of getting
people to do things or feel a certain way. Be
careful. We're collecting donations for wildfire
victims. Can we count on you? Nope, I'm fake.
It looks like I stole these donuts, huh? Nope,
this is all fake. They can make me say anything.
For example, I don't know my rear end from a
hole in the ground. See what I mean? Did you
know the candidate kicks puppies? Nope. That's
fake and so are we. If you think it looks fake,
it probably is. Trust your gut. If you mix bananas,
pickles and ice cream, you'll get sick. Be careful
of online nutrition advice. This tech is only
getting better. We can even imitate people you
know and love. Be careful. Grandma, it's me,
Billy. I'm in jail and I need to get bailed out.
Please send cash now. Nope, I'm fake. I miss
you, baby. If I could just get that plane ticket,
we'd finally be together. Nope, I'm fake. Hello,
handsome. Just send me the money for the trip
and I'll come see you. Nope, sorry, I'm fake.
What can you do? If you're not sure if something
is real, ask someone you trust. Again, everything
in this video is fake. Our voices, what we're
wearing, where we are, all of it fake. If you
think you've been the victim of a scam like any
of these, don't be embarrassed. Contact your
local law enforcement right away. In early 2023,
an Arizona mother picked up her phone and heard
her 15 -year -old daughter sobbing, gasping,
begging for help. Her whole body locked up. She
heard a man's voice demanding ransom, $1 million,
dropping to 50 ,000 if she wired it immediately.
Don't hang up, he said. Keep this secret, he
said. Minnis dragged like hours before she learned
her daughter was actually safe at a ski race.
The voice she'd heard had been cloned. from short
clips online. Her maternal reflex? Weaponized.
Around the same time in Florida, a mother named
Sharon answered a call from her daughter. At
least that's what it sounded like. A frantic
voice, crying that she caused a crash and that
hurt a pregnant woman. A man claiming to be a
lawyer stepped in. Bail money. Now. Sharon withdrew
$15 ,000 and sent it on. Only later did she learn
her daughter was fine at work. The voice that
made her panic was a clunk, and she couldn't
tell the difference. That's what these scammers
do. Hijack your love, not your logic. Because
when it's someone die for. Your brain doesn't
analyze. It simply reacts. And these scams are
spreading. In California's Coachella Valley,
elderly residents have been getting calls from
what sounds like their children or grandkids.
Dad, it's me. Help. The voice is right. The panic
is right. And nearly everyone falls for it. Studies
show 90 -plus percent of people can't tell the
difference between a cloned voice from the real
thing, especially when emotion floods the line.
One man wired $25 ,000 after hearing what he
swore was his son's terrified voice. But it wasn't.
Across the world in India, an elderly man received
a WhatsApp call from what sounded like his relative
overseas. The voice said his mother needed urgent
heart surgery, begged for help. And within minutes,
the man transferred a bunch of rubies. About
$1 ,200. The call was fake. The voice was a clone.
It's a global problem now. traveling across borders
at the speed of empathy. These calls work because
voice is memory. We recognize each other in the
dark by breath and rhythm. A good clone doesn't
just mimic sound. It captures timing, hesitation,
even the way a person leans on vowels. That's
the fingerprint our ears trust. And that's what
gets used against us. This isn't only a family
problem. It's a born word problem. In Hong Kong,
an employee joined what looked like a routine
video call with his company's CFO and team. The
voices and faces all checked out. The instructions
were very clear. move funds, keep it confidential.
$25 million vanished before anyone realized the
entire meeting had been a deep fake. Faces and
voices completely synthetic. Back in 2019, a
UK energy executive took a phone call from someone
who sounded exactly like his boss. The accent,
the tone, the phrasing, it all matched. The caller
ordered an urgent transfer of over 200 ,000 euros.
He obeyed. As it turns out, the boss was an AI
-generated voice. This was the first headline
case of its kind. We've been playing catch -up
ever since. The scammer script rarely changes.
Urgency, secrecy, authority. Don't hang up. Keep
this a secret. Wire it now. When urgency wears
the voice of someone you love or someone you
work for, doubt dies first. 25 ,000 dollars.
is now out of my wife and my retirement savings.
Gone. He fell victim to an old scam with a very
new twist, crooks using artificial intelligence
to rip people off. Welcome back, I'm Mark Brown.
I'm Jovanna Lotta, you're watching Eyewitness
News at 5, live on ABC 7, Hulu and wherever you
stream. We often report on phone scams that con
artists use to get at your money. Now they're
taking advantage of AI to make their scams even
more believable. Eyewitness News reporter Carlos
Granda explains how it works and what you can
do to avoid becoming a victim in this seven on
your side investigation. investigation. I look
like a fool. I feel like a fool, but I don't
care. I want to help everybody that I can possibly
help Anthony who doesn't want to give his last
name says that's how he feels after he was scammed
out of $25 ,000. It all started when he got a
phone call that he believed was from his son
dad. I had a horrible accident. I ran into a
woman who is pregnant carrying a child inside
of her. She was rushed to the ICU. He says after
a short conversation, he hangs up and gets another
call from someone who says his name is Michael
Roberts and he's a lawyer. He then tells Anthony
he needs $9 ,200 for his son's bail. He said
you need to get $9 ,200 as fast as you can if
you want your son out of jail. Otherwise, he's
in for 45 days. Anthony says he did try to call
his son back to verify all of this, but the call
went to voicemail, so he assumed it's because
he really was in jail. So Anthony rushes to the
bank to get the money. He says to avoid suspicion
or any holdups, he tells the bank it's for a
solar panel installation and they approve it.
He then gets home and asks his daughter to call
the person identified as Michael Roberts. And
she says, we've got the money. What do we do
now? He said, don't worry, someone will be at
the house. It'll be an Uber car any minute. And
with that. There's an uber car. This surveillance
video shows as his daughter takes the money out
in a manila envelope. They check the license
plate and the driver to make sure it is a legitimate
uber driver. She hands over the money and the
driver leaves. Then the phone rings again. This
time a different man who says his name is Mark
Cohen and he's another attorney involved in the
case. He says the pregnant woman died. The bail
has been raised. Mark Cohen says another $15
,800 to $25 ,000. So they repeat everything again,
getting more money out of the bank and giving
it to yet another Uber driver who picks up the
second package. Anthony says as things calm down,
they start searching the Internet and doing research
and his daughter tells him the bad news and says,
Dad, I hope I'm wrong. I think you have just
been scammed. out of $25 ,000. Never even crossed
my mind. Police say this type of scam is not
new. Variations on it have been around for years,
but they say now using new technology, those
calls or notifications can appear more realistic
than ever. The scammers are just becoming more
clever. What makes these scams so devastating
isn't just the tech. It's biology. Your body
hears distress or authority and floods with adrenaline.
Logic slows. Scammers know this. They don't need
perfect audio. They just need to reach you before
reason does. And it's not just home phones. Businesses
are bleeding money too. In 2024, engineers at
a UK firm sat through what they thought. was
a real Zoom meeting. Familiar voices, familiar
faces, every one of them faked. Millions moved,
no alarms tripped. It was the corporate version
of a family scam. Same con, difference takes.
Let's talk about what to do when it happens to
you, or perhaps before it does. Roll one, breathe.
Seriously, the first breath slows the panic.
Roll two, hang up. Even if it feels wrong, hang
up. A real emergency survives a callback. A fake
one doesn't. Roll three. Call a known number,
not the one that just called you. Roll four,
have a family code word. Make it goofy, unforgettable,
something you never say by accident. If your
son or your sister can't give it up, hang up.
Roll five, when money enters the conversation,
the bar of perv skyrockets. Two voices. Two verifications,
always. These sound like small things, but they're
not. They're breaks, and breaks saved lives and
savings alike. Law enforcement keeps finding
patterns. Calls arrive at vulnerable hours, late
afternoon, when people are tired. Travel days,
when kids are unreachable. Practice nights, when
you expect to miss calls. There is own mother's
story, hinged on exactly that. Her daughter was
at a ski race. The scam fit the moment perfectly.
That's the art. Exploiting gaps in normal communication.
In Coachella Valley, scammers target grandparents
between 3 p .m. and 6 p .m. when isolation peaks
and the body's decision -making slows. In India,
they time WhatsApp calls to hit just after bank
hours so victims can't confirm until morning.
They know the rhythms of our lives better than
we do. Technology is trying to fight back. Caller
ID authentication can flag spoof numbers, but
it can't detect cloned voices. Some banks are
adding voice print verification. But the paradox
is obvious. When your voice can be forward, voice
print security becomes a liability. Lawmakers
are slowly catching up, recognizing voice as
personal property. Your voice likeness protected
under law. But legislators move slower than innovation.
And the bad actors, they don't wait. So the best
defense is cultural. A cultural form of verification.
In families, that means no shame in hanging up
and calling back. In offices, it means written
approvals for wire transfers and no single point
of authorizations. In schools, it means no voice
only identity checks for exams or credentials.
It's not paranoia, it's hygiene. Hello, Abigail.
I love you so much, darling. I had to make this
video to make you happy, my love. Well, it looks
like him. It even sounds like him. But what if
we told you this is not actually General Hospital?
actor Steve Burton and the video is being used
to trick you for your money. One woman believes
she was speaking directly with the soap opera
star and assumed she had video proof but in reality
she was being duped by thieves with zero connections
to the actor. Take a look at the videos for yourself.
It's easy to understand the confusion. Can you
tell which one is the real Steve Burton? The
one on the left is him while the one on the right
is an artificial intelligence version. Eyewitness
News investigative reporter Kevin Osebeck here
to explain this scam. Wow Kevin. has artificial
intelligence now become so good and so advanced
you could no longer truly tell what is real and
what is fake. Well, a South LA family sure thinks
we've now reached that point. A woman turned
to seven on your side investigates after her
mom lost tens of thousands of dollars and even
sold her home. All because her mother thought
the star of General Hospital was deeply in love
with her. I'm sickened by it because it went
this far. Why didn't I know this? Why didn't
I see what was happening? What? What did I miss?
Vivian Rublecaba wishes she knew sooner what
her mother Abigail was doing online and what
Abigail was texting to the scammer who sent her
there. Hello, Abigail. I love you so much, darling.
I had to make this video to make you happy, my
love. To general hospital fans, this face and
voice are instantly recognizable as the likeness
of Steve Burden. We're gonna be there to stop
him one way or another. Burden has played the
leading role of Jason Morgan since 1991. And
as a fan favorite, tech experts, we show this
video to believe it was created with AI. And
you should always know that nothing will ever
make me hurt you or lie to you, my queen. Identical
to him. So I understand why she fell for it.
After Abigail received similar videos in her
Facebook DMs in October of last year, she thought
the real General Hospital star was in love with
her. The scammer moved the conversation over
to WhatsApp, where he told Abigail, I want to
live the rest of my life with you. Steve Burden
and Abigail Burden sounds like a dream come true.
And... You're my wife in her head. It was. There
was no scammer. She was talking to Steve Burton
the entire time. Vivian says her mother has suffered
with mental illness and bipolar one disorder
for years, and she says that's why when the scammer
posing as the soap star texted her mom that he
lost properties in the LA fires, Abigail believed
Abigail was also fooled with text like this.
The Beach House is something we will love baby
thinking Steve Burton needed money so they could
buy a home to share. Together, her mother, according
to an LAPD incident report, sent the scammer
at least $81 ,304 in gift cards, cash, and bitcoin.
Now she's in complete debt and now she's going
to have to file for bankruptcy. But it gets even
worse. Earlier this year, Abigail texted the
scammer, I remember you had suggested to sell
the place. I said no. Now I don't care. This
scammer replied. If selling a place is what will
give us a fresh start and bring us closer to
where we both want to be, then I am behind Abigail
that sold her condo in Harbor City for $350 ,000.
Vivian learned of all this right in the nick
of time. Had I not intervened when I did, she
was scheduled to send the scammer $70 ,000 out
of that money that was sitting there. She's ashamed.
I know she is. And to put that stress on me,
on herself, on my dad, the entire family, I know
it weighs heavy on me. And unfortunately, the
living, breathing Steve Burden has heard of stories
like this before. How many women do you think
have fallen victim to this? Oh, that I know of?
I mean, that I know of lost money? It's in the
hundreds. Burden says here on his verified Instagram
account, he sees scammers responding to fan comments
to lure them to other pages where they are eventually
asked for money. Now let's set with the emotional
aftermath because numbers don't tell it. Victims
talk about guilt. How did I fall for that? But
trauma fits better. They replay every sound.
The cry, the breath, the silence before the line
went dead. The sound of their loved ones being
weaponized. That's a memory that doesn't fade
easily. It replaces trust with suspicion, and
suspicion corrodes ordinary life. I promised
to tell you how little it took to build my voice
clone. I used 20 seconds of clean audio, less
than a sip of coffee. In a few minutes, the software
produced a model that could say things I never
said. It wasn't perfect, but it didn't need to
be. If you were scared or tired or desperate,
you'd believe it. That's the terrifying simplicity
of it. We can't put the genie back in the box.
voice cloning isn't going away, and it's actually
only getting better. But we can get smarter,
slower, and less predictable. The key is friction.
Build friction into your habits. hang up, call
back, verify, add code words, layer proof. These
little pauses are how we survive the illusion
of immediate failure. When you strip it down,
these scam work because sound used to mean truth
and voice on the other end of a line meant presence.
Now it just means possibility, real or perhaps
fake. Hearing used to be believing. Today, hearing
needs a second opinion or voices. carry trust,
they carry memory, they carry us. When that can
be copied, that boundary between person and machine
blurs. The only way back is to reteach ourselves
to pause, to question even when it feels familiar.
So the next time your phone rings and panic walks
through your ear, just breathe. Ask a question
only your person would know. call back, verify
before you act. Because yes, they cloned my voice.
They can clone yours too. The question isn't
whether we can stop the technology. It's whether
we can live wisely with it. Wisely enough to
refuse to lie, even when it sounds exactly like
somebody we love. And it doesn't stop there.
Voices can be unpredictable. You hear them on
the phone, you can't see a picture to cooperate
the findings. But guess what? AI is cloning your
likeness as well. It can be done simply, easily,
and quickly. I can make it look like you, make
it sound like you, persuade you to do whatever
I want. because you would love that image and
that sound, but you can't believe everything
you see or hear. You have to use discernment
or you'll find yourself being taken advantage
of at zero signal. We want to protect you. Remember
to pause. Remember to have discernment. Remember
to think. call back and be ready because everybody
out here at least has been attempted to be scammed
once. So be wise. I'm David Green, and this is
Zero Signal. Remember to join us every Tuesday
at 6 a .m. for our full -length deep dive episodes
into the strange, the unknown, and the conspiracy
shaping our world. If this story helped you,
share it with someone who needs to hear it before
their phone rings. And remember, pause, breathe,
verify.