DeepfakeHigh
Scammers Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Daughter's Voice to Defraud Bay Area Mother in Fake Kidnapping Call
- Occurred
- May 24, 2026
- Published
- May 24, 2026
- Source
- AI Incident Database
Summary
Deborah Del Mastro of Martinez, California, reportedly wired $5,400 to Mexico after scammers falsely claimed her daughter Sarah had been kidnapped and played what she believed was Sarah's panicked voice. AI had reportedly been used to mimic the daughter's voice during a five-hour call that pressured Del Mastro to send money. After she contacted her daughter and learned she was safe, Martinez police reportedly began investigating.
Developers
- Deepfake technology developers
- Synthetic audio generation technology developers
Deployers
- Scammers
- Fake kidnapping scammers
Harmed parties
- Deborah Del Mastro
- Daughter of Deborah Del Mastro
- Epistemic integrity
- Victims of impersonation scams
- Victims of fake kidnapping scammers
Classification
Category confidence: 95%
Severity confidence: 90%
Rationale: AI voice cloning used in a fraud scam causing financial loss and police investigation.
Classifier: Qwen/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-FP8