Jul 17, 2026Confirmed
AI-generated voice used in kidnapping ransom scam call in Boone County, Missouri
AI loose in the worldImpersonationDERIVED
Approved by person, Oct 11, 2026. How entries are approved
Boone County, Missouri, authorities said a resident received a call on July 17, 2026, showing the daughter's name and number, with an AI-generated imitation of her voice claiming she was kidnapped. A second voice demanded ransom. Police found the daughter safe in Jefferson City, unaware of the call. No payment or arrest was reported.
What this means for youScammers can now fake the voice of someone you love and make a call look like it comes from their number. Agree on a family code word, and if a call demands money, hang up and phone the person directly on a number you know.
Sources
- AI Incident Databasehttps://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1615
Data from the AI Incident Database (incidentdatabase.ai), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. IAAI-21.
Source data license: CC BY-SA 4.0 (database). Report contents keep their own rights; reports.text, submissions, images and videos are excluded from the data license.
Covered by snapshot 45
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