How to spot and avoid AI voice scams.

The four scams we see most. What attackers say, what they ask for, and the verification habits that defeat them.

The four common patterns

1. The family emergency

You receive a call (or voice note) from someone who sounds exactly like a relative. They are in distress. They have been kidnapped, arrested, in an accident. They need money now and they cannot talk long. They name a payment method that cannot be reversed: wire transfer, gift cards, crypto.

2. The CEO wire transfer

You work in finance. You receive a call from someone who sounds like a senior executive (CEO, CFO, controller). They need you to wire a payment immediately to close a deal that "cannot wait until tomorrow." They ask you to bypass the normal approval process. They are confident, in a hurry, and they know enough about the business to sound legitimate.

3. The IT support callback

An attacker who has done their homework calls posing as your IT department. The voice sounds familiar (cloned from internal town-hall recordings posted online). They claim to have detected suspicious activity on your account and need you to "verify" your credentials.

4. The recruiter or vendor

Less dramatic. An attacker uses a cloned voice to set up an inbound call (fake job offer, fake vendor opportunity, fake investor inquiry) that ends with an attempt to extract information or money. Usually pairs with a fake email and a fake LinkedIn profile.

Red flags they all share

• Urgency. The decision must be made now. No time to think.
• Process bypass. The normal verification steps are inconvenient and the caller suggests skipping them this once.
• Irreversible payment. Wire, crypto, gift cards. Not credit cards. Not anything chargeback-able.
• Secrecy. "Do not tell anyone yet" or "this is confidential" or "the lawyer said not to discuss".
• Off-channel. The call or voice note arrives through a less-verified channel (WhatsApp, SMS, Telegram) rather than the channel where you would expect to hear from this person.

How to verify before you act

1. Hang up. Then call back on a verified number (the one in your contacts, not the one that called you).
2. Use a code word. Families and finance teams should have a code word agreed in advance. Real family members and real executives will know it.
3. Run the audio through the detector. Save the voice note, drop it at /is-this-ai. A verdict in half a second is faster than the attacker expects you to be.
4. Ask a question only the real person knows. Not generic ("what is my dog's name", which might be on Instagram), but specific ("what did we eat together last Sunday").

If it happens to you

Save the audio. Note the time, the number, and exactly what was said. Report to your bank (if money moved or almost moved), to local police, and to the FTC (US) or your national equivalent. We have submitted dozens of these to investigators on request. The data is useful for prosecutions.

Slow down. Hang up. Call back on a number you trust. If you are still not sure, run the audio.