AI Voice Kidnapping Scam: How One Mom Was Kept on the Phone for 5 Hours

Imagine your phone rings and you hear your child crying, terrified, begging for help. Then a stranger takes the phone and says they have kidnapped them. For one California mother, that nightmare lasted five and a half hours, and her daughter was safe at work the entire time.

This is the AI voice kidnapping scam, also called a virtual kidnapping scam. Criminals use voice cloning technology to mimic a loved one's voice, then use fear and isolation to push victims into sending money fast.

The 5-Hour Ordeal

In a Fox News report by Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson, Navy veteran Deborah Del Mastro described the call that upended her morning. She was having breakfast with her husband when a local number rang. The caller claimed a Mexican drug cartel had taken her 37-year-old daughter, Sarah. Then Deborah heard what sounded like Sarah sobbing and struggling to breathe. She told Knutsson it was exactly her daughter's voice.

The man claimed Sarah had witnessed something in a parking lot and demanded $20,000, threatening to sell her. Over the next five and a half hours, he:

• Ordered Deborah to bring a phone charger and keep the line open so he could hear everything.
• Screamed at her when she muted the call to talk to her husband.
• Sent the couple to Walmart and other locations to wire money to Mexico.
• Gave her a cover story about a relative's medical bills in case anyone asked.
• Let her hear "Sarah" a second time, then put an "enforcer" on the line to demand more.

In total, Deborah sent $5,400 in four transfers through MoneyGram and Western Union, all the money she and her husband could access. Finally, the caller said Sarah had been released outside a Walmart. She was not there. When Deborah called her daughter directly, Sarah answered from work, unaware anything had happened. Sarah immediately suspected an AI clone of her voice.

Deborah later told a US Senate committee that she was still traumatised months afterwards. Her community helped replace the lost money through a fundraiser.

How AI Voice Kidnapping Scams Work

Virtual kidnapping is an old scam. As Deborah put it to Fox News, it is an old scam with new technology. The FBI has long warned that virtual kidnappers keep victims on the phone so they cannot check where their loved one is, and often demand wire transfers to Mexico. More recently, the FBI has warned that criminals are using altered media in these schemes.

AI makes the con far more convincing. According to the FTC, scammers can take a short clip of someone's real voice, such as audio posted online, and use voice cloning tools to make a call sound like that person. A typical AI voice scam follows this pattern:

1. Research. Scammers find names, relatives and phone numbers from social media and data broker sites.
2. Voice capture. A few seconds of audio from a video, voicemail or podcast can be enough to clone a voice.
3. The call. A cloned voice cries for help, then a "kidnapper" takes over with threats.
4. Isolation. The victim is told to stay on the line, keep it secret and not contact police.
5. Fast, untraceable payment. Wire transfers, cryptocurrency or gift cards that are hard to recover.

Warning Signs of a Virtual Kidnapping Scam

• The caller insists you stay on the phone and gets angry if you mute or hang up.
• You are told not to contact police, family or anyone else.
• You only hear your loved one briefly, crying or panicking, and cannot ask them questions.
• The caller demands money by wire transfer, MoneyGram, Western Union, crypto or gift cards.
• You are given a cover story to tell bank or store staff.
• The ransom amount drops quickly when you say you cannot pay.
• The call comes from an unknown or local number rather than your loved one's phone.

Even calm, experienced people can be fooled. Deborah describes herself as someone who runs toward a crisis, yet the voice convinced her completely. Spotting a fake voice is getting harder, so the best defence is a plan for verifying the emergency.

How to Protect Your Family From AI Voice Scams

• Call your loved one directly. Use the number saved in your phone, or contact someone who should be with them. If you can, use a second phone while the scammer is still on the line.
• Agree on a family safe word. Pick something that cannot be found on social media. The FBI recommends this, but as Deborah noted, a scammer may control when you can speak, so do not rely on it alone.
• Set up location sharing with trusted family members so you can quickly check where someone is.
• Treat secrecy as a red flag. Anyone insisting you tell no one is almost certainly a scammer.
• Be wary of wire transfers and gift cards. Real emergencies rarely require them.
• Limit what you share online. Lock down social media, think twice about public voice clips, and remove your details from people-search sites.
• Talk about this scam now, before the phone rings, especially with older relatives.

What to Do If It Happens to You

If you have sent money, contact the bank or transfer company immediately and ask whether the payment can be stopped. Report the scam to local police and the FBI's IC3 at ic3.gov, and file a report with the FTC. You can also Report a Scam to warn others.

The Bottom Line

An AI voice kidnapping scam works because it targets love and fear at the same time. A cloned voice can sound exactly like your child, so do not trust the voice. Trust your verification plan: hang up or put the call on hold, and contact your loved one another way before you send a cent.

Adam Collins is a cybersecurity researcher at ScamAdviser who operates under a pseudonym for privacy and security. With over four years on the digital frontlines, he specialises in translating complex threats into actionable advice. His mission: exposing red flags so you can navigate the web with confidence.

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Source: Fox News, "AI voice scam traps mom in 5-hour kidnapping nightmare," by Kurt Knutsson, CyberGuy Report.