# AI voice cloning scam calls: how they work and how to protect your family

Updated 2026-10-31

A phone call in the voice of your child or grandparent, in tears, asking for money right now: with AI voice cloning, that voice can be fake. The FTC warns that scammers need only a short audio clip of a family member, for example from a video posted online, to make a convincing copy.

We build voice tools, so we think people should know exactly how this abuse works. Here is what the FTC and the FBI advise, in plain steps.

## How the scam works

The scammer takes a short recording of someone’s voice from social media or a video, runs it through a voice-cloning program and calls a relative with an emergency: an accident, an arrest, a robbery abroad. The cloned voice sounds like your loved one, and the story is built to make you act before you think.

## Red flags

Urgency and secrecy, such as “do not tell Mom” or “you must pay in the next hour”. Payment in ways that are hard to reverse: the FTC names wiring money, sending cryptocurrency and buying gift cards and reading out the numbers. A call from an unknown number, a sudden “lawyer” or “police officer” taking over, and odd tone or word choice for the person you know.

## What to do during the call

Do not trust the voice alone. Hang up and call the person back on a number you already know is theirs, not one the caller gives you. If you cannot reach them, contact them through another family member or a friend. Never share bank details, codes or other sensitive information with someone you know only from a call.

## Protect your family in advance

The FBI suggests agreeing on a secret word or phrase with your family that a real caller in trouble can say. It also advises limiting public posts of your image and voice where possible and making social media accounts private. Talk about this scam with older relatives: they are the most common target of “family emergency” calls.

## Report it and know the rules

In the United States, report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov; elsewhere, contact the police or your national fraud reporting service, and your bank at once if money was sent. On SuperClonica, a real person’s voice may be used only with their consent; if you find your own voice published here without it, write to us through the contacts page.

## More guides

- [Is this voice AI? How to tell, and how to avoid voice scams](https://superclonica.com/en/guides/how-to-tell-if-a-voice-is-ai)
- [A streaming text to speech API: the first sound from 300 ms](https://superclonica.com/en/guides/streaming-text-to-speech-api)
- [How to turn off the voice in Google Maps, Apple Maps and Waze](https://superclonica.com/en/guides/mute-navigation-voice)
- [AI voices in a Steam game: what to disclose and which voices you may ship](https://superclonica.com/en/guides/ai-voices-in-steam-games)
- [A VOICE GATE (ボイスゲート) alternative without character limits](https://superclonica.com/en/guides/voicegate-alternative)
- [An alternative to Soprano, Kani TTS and Marvis TTS](https://superclonica.com/en/guides/soprano-kani-marvis-tts-alternative)
- [Twilio custom voice: play your own text-to-speech audio](https://superclonica.com/en/guides/twilio-custom-voice)
- [A Supertonic 3 API: hosted in the cloud or on your own server](https://superclonica.com/en/guides/supertonic-api)
- [Talking dog voice: give your pet a voice in videos](https://superclonica.com/en/guides/talking-pet-voiceover)
- [A custom TTS for LiveKit Agents: give your voice agent any voice](https://superclonica.com/en/guides/livekit-custom-tts)
- [Linux text to speech: natural offline TTS from the terminal](https://superclonica.com/en/guides/text-to-speech-linux)
- [What is a voice-over? Meaning, types and how to make one](https://superclonica.com/en/guides/what-is-voice-over)

## Text to speech and comparisons

- [Text-to-speech that runs on your own computer](https://superclonica.com/en/text-to-speech)
- [Supertonic vs SuperClonica: same model, faster and cleaner](https://superclonica.com/en/compare/supertonic)
- [Fish Audio and Fish Speech vs SuperClonica](https://superclonica.com/en/compare/fish-audio)
- [OmniVoice vs SuperClonica: more languages or more speed](https://superclonica.com/en/compare/omnivoice)
- [Qwen3-TTS vs SuperClonica for local text-to-speech](https://superclonica.com/en/compare/qwen3-tts)
- [VoxCPM 2 vs SuperClonica: studio sound or CPU speed](https://superclonica.com/en/compare/voxcpm)
- [F5-TTS vs SuperClonica: zero-shot cloning or fast CPU speech](https://superclonica.com/en/compare/f5-tts)
- [An offline alternative to ElevenLabs](https://superclonica.com/en/compare/elevenlabs)
- [Kokoro TTS vs SuperClonica: two small models for local speech](https://superclonica.com/en/compare/kokoro)
- [Piper TTS vs SuperClonica: tiny devices or custom voices](https://superclonica.com/en/compare/piper)
- [Coqui XTTS-v2 vs SuperClonica: a Coqui TTS alternative](https://superclonica.com/en/compare/xtts)
- [Chatterbox TTS vs SuperClonica: instant cloning or a trained voice file](https://superclonica.com/en/compare/chatterbox)

## Frequently asked questions

### How much audio do scammers need to clone a voice?

The FTC says a short audio clip, for example from a video posted online, can be enough.

### Can I recognise a cloned voice by ear?

Not reliably. Listen for odd tone or word choice, but the safe check is to hang up and call back on a number you know.

### What is a family safe word?

A secret word or phrase your family agrees on in advance, so a real caller in an emergency can prove who they are. The FBI recommends it.

### Where do I report an AI voice scam?

In the US at ReportFraud.ftc.gov; elsewhere to the police or your national fraud reporting service, and your bank if you paid.

- [Browse voices](https://superclonica.com/en/explore)
- [Install the SuperClonica engine](https://superclonica.com/en/superclonica)

## Sources

- [FTC: Scammers use AI to enhance their family emergency schemes](https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2023/03/scammers-use-ai-enhance-their-family-emergency-schemes)
- [FBI IC3: Criminals use generative AI to facilitate financial fraud](https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2024/PSA241203)
- [SuperClonica](https://superclonica.com/en/)
- [AI voice catalog for text to speech](https://superclonica.com/en/explore)
- [Text to Speech API: free key, plans from $5](https://superclonica.com/en/speech-api)
- [Custom voice commissions for Supertonic 3](https://superclonica.com/en/requests)
- [How it works: voices, local speech, training](https://superclonica.com/en/guide)
- [Install the faster Supertonic 3 engine](https://superclonica.com/en/superclonica)
- [About us: speech synthesis enthusiasts](https://superclonica.com/en/about)
- [Contacts, support and voice complaints](https://superclonica.com/en/contacts)
- [Privacy policy: what data we keep](https://superclonica.com/en/privacy)
- [Terms of use: rules for buyers and authors](https://superclonica.com/en/terms)
- [Text to speech](https://superclonica.com/en/text-to-speech)