My own mom fell for a deepfake of me asking for money yesterday

I got a frantic call from my mom saying she saw a video of me asking for $500 to get out of some legal trouble. It looked exactly like me talking but the voice was slightly robotic and I had to explain three times it wasn't real before she believed me. Has anyone else had a family member get tricked by one of these things?

4 comments

4 Comments

robertcarr1mo ago

My aunt fell for the same scam last year with a video that supposedly showed my cousin panicking. She wired $300 before anyone even knew. I get why people are scared but honestly the tech isn't that good yet if you pay attention. The voice always sounds off and the lighting looks weird. These scammers are just casting a wide net and hoping someone panics fast. Most people won't fall for it if they take two seconds to think.

charles_young921mo ago

Yeah that's pretty much it. My folks almost got caught by something similar last year. I sat them down and made a simple rule with them. If anyone ever calls or sends a video asking for money and saying it's me or my brother, they have to call us on our actual phone numbers first. No exceptions. I also gave them a safe word we can use if things get weird. Sounds silly but it worked when my mom got a sketchy voicemail a few months back. She just hung up and called me to check.

ward.kim1mo ago

Did you pick a safe word that's easy to remember but hard to guess?

morgan_king361d ago

Has anyone checked if these deepfakes are using stolen footage from Instagram or TikTok? Because my buddy found his exact mannerisms in a scam video and it was ripped straight from his public stories.