LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — A Louisville mom is warning parents after she got a call from someone who cloned her daughter's voice.
The Louisville mom said it was the scariest call she had ever received.
It was her 10-year-old daughter's voice on the other line, saying she had been in an accident and needed help.
The mom immediately called her daughter's school, where she was, safe, but she wants to warn others in case this scammer goes after other parents, too.
"It's a living nightmare," Kim Alvey said.
Alvey was driving in Louisville Tuesday afternoon when she said she got the scariest phone call of her life.
"She was saying 'mom, mom please help me,'" Alvey said. "I just got in an accident. Somebody hit me in a car, and you need to get here as quick as possible."
For a split second, Alvey thought that call came from her 10-year-old daughter.
"She was very frantic. She was screaming. It was almost like she was crying. I definitely knew it was her voice. It was her. I know my daughter's voice," Alvey said.
Then, Alvey heard a man's voice, who called himself Hector and threatened to kidnap her daughter.
"If you call the police, you're not gonna get your daughter back," the caller on the phone said to Alvey. "Right now I have her in my car, you come to me right now, and you're gonna get her."
Alvey tried to add her husband on the line, but the caller hung up.
Every scenario went through Alvey's head in a matter of seconds.
"I was panicking. All I could think about was getting my hands on my daughter," Alvey said. "I did not give him a chance to tell me a place to meet him or to see if he wanted money. I didn't even give him that chance. I immediately hung up and called the school."
Her daughter was in fact still at school and safe.
That's when Alvey realized the phone call was a scam, but for those few minutes, her world was turned upside down.
"I immediately hugged her for 10 minutes bawling crying and told her I'm never letting her go," Alvey said.
The FBI has put a warning out about criminals using artificial intelligence to make the scam more believable. Scammers are using text, pictures, video and cloning voices to impersonate someone well-known or close to you.
In a public service announcement in December, the agency said criminals generate short audio clips containing a loved one's voice to impersonate a close relative in a crisis situation.
"I don't know if he wanted money," Alvey said. "I don't know if he wanted me, but he wanted something. He knew my name, he knew my daughter's name, he knew my phone number, and he had my daughter's voice, and it was just all so real and believable. It's very scary."
Alvey said the number came up with a 502 area code, and that's why she answered it.
WDRB tried calling the number back, but received no answer, and no one has called us back.
The man actually called back Alvey back two more times. She said she just wanted to get the word out so no one falls victim if they get a call like this.
Experts suggest creating a safe word that your family can use if they do in fact need help. Verify where your loved one is or who is calling if you can, and never send money to people you have not met in person.
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