Your phone rings, and without thinking, you answer it. It’s your spouse. Or your grandma. Maybe the friend you’re always posting TikToks with online. And they’re asking for your help.
They’ve been in a car accident, and you have to provide some personal information as their emergency contact. They’re in jail and need you to bail them out. Or maybe it’s even simpler than that: Grandma can’t log into her account and needs to send you a code. Can you please read it to her?
The familiar lilt of their voices catch you off guard — only none of them are real.
Their voices have been cloned, and malicious actors are donning their audio likenesses to scam you out of your personal information, and sometimes cold, hard cash. That number is growing, making even more people susceptible to the deceptive tech, but there are very simple ways to protect yourself and your loved ones.
Scroll through TikTok, and you’ll come across hundreds of stories detailing tales concocted by scammers to impersonate your loved ones. In one such video with more than 450,000 views, a young woman writes that her mother was nearly scammed by an imposter who imitated her grandmother’s voice. The only way they caught it? Grandma is no longer alive.
Scams are on the rise. In 2025, Americans lost around $148.2 billion to digital crimes, a jump of more than 25 percent from the year before. Recent data from digital security company NordVPN found that a growing number of scammers are pitching voice scam services to bad actors on dark web forums and Telegram channels. Sales pitches for voice cloning services rose sevenfold in the last two years, reported NordVPN.
Why more people are getting fooled by audio scams
One reason that number keeps ticking up is the proliferation of sophisticated — but more importantly accessible — generative AI tools, explained Marijus Briedis, CTO at NordVPN.
“Some years ago, a cloned voice had something slightly off about it, and most people could hear it. That is gone now,” Briedis said.
Advanced technology is only one part of the growing scam industry, however. Briedis explained that such tools are being increasingly packaged, priced, and sold directly to the Average Joe.
Voice cloning tools, previously a standalone novelty tech, are now sold as a single feature in all-encompassing, common criminal toolkits, or “scam kits,” experts told Mashable. These kits include access to legitimate generative AI tools via jailbroken accounts, troves of personal data, and other features sold at increasingly affordable prices.
Credit: Cole Kan / Mashable / Getty
For example, a recent study of dark web marketplaces conducted by NordVPN found that a hacked ElevenLabs Scale account — complete with unlimited voice cloning — sold for just $150. An ElevenLabs API key was going for a mere $8.
Scam networks no longer need technologically savvy hackers or technologists. Just about anyone with a computer can do it. And that means you have to be prepared.
Step 1: Know the threat and make a plan
“When anyone can run the attack, volume becomes the strategy,” Briedis said. “No single attempt has to be perfect. There just have to be a lot of them.”
But asking someone to be on alert all the time is unfair, Briedis said. Up until now, the mantra has been: “Every message, every video, every call. Get it wrong once and that is the one that counts,” Briedis explained. “Nobody holds that standard across a lifetime, and most security advice assumes they will.”
As an alternative, users can prepare themselves, and their community, to be able to step up when the moment calls.
Credit: Cole Kan/Mashable/Getty
Prepare your contacts
Eyal Elazar, head of market Intelligence for online merchant security business Riskified, described effective scam preparation as being a “digital ambassador” for your inner circle.
It begins with a little research. Find and save verified contact information for important callers, such as your bank, insurance company, or family lawyers. You can use this to cross reference callers later.
Then, talk to your circles about what a legitimate phone call would look like. Know who lists you as an emergency contact, and in what contexts. Are you a beneficiary on an account, and, if so, what do you need to know?
Set a code word
Most experts Mashable spoke to recommend creating a code word that you can use with friends and family to confirm who they are. Don’t share this anywhere online. “Sounds silly right up until the day it does not,” Briedis said.
Filter out the red flags
There are also common scam requests that are instant red flags, experts told Mashable. Any demand for money over the phone is suspicious. There are more specific tells, too:
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Requests to read a code, sent via text or email, over the phone
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Requests for passwords or other log-in credentials
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Demands for payment via gift cards, wire transfers, crypto exchanges, and payment apps
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Suggestions to initiate a wire transfer over a voice note, a phone call, or a voicemail
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Demands of ransom
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Law enforcement dealings conducted via phone call
Step 2: Putting down the phone can stop a scammer.
“AI isn’t inventing new scams, but it’s removing the tells we’ve learned to look for in the old ones,” said Donnie Hasseltine, chief information security officer at Arkstone Defense.
It can be hard to discern the small audio tells that make your loved ones’ voice truly theirs, especially when an individual is up against social engineering that forces urgency and stirs panic.
So, the next piece of advice is to hang up on your friends or “friends.”
Yes, this may cause some drama in the group chat. But if you can’t always tell when a voice is real or cloned, it’s best to cut them off and reset.
If someone you personally know was supposedly on the other line, call them back on the number you’re used to before agreeing to anything. If it’s a bank or your workplace, call a listed number on an official website, the back of a credit card, or a piece of mail. Many institutions are already keenly aware of common phone scams that target customers.
“Stop judging the content and change the channel instead,” Breidis urged.
Step 3: Slow down.
The last, and most simple, piece of advice is to take a breath. Experts told Mashable that urgency is the number one red flag that may indicate you are the target of a scam, e.g., someone claiming to be from the electricity company demanding money immediately in exchange for keeping your power on. That supposed urgency also sets you up to be more susceptible to scammers.
Andrew Jones, co-founder of Adaptive Security, said that a manufactured sense of urgency as well as a demand for secrecy are the two factors found in nearly every successful scam he has studied.
“Nothing is so urgent that it can’t wait for you to verify it,” Hasseltine agreed.
So don’t give in to the rush. Slow down, hang up the phone, and ask someone else to weigh in.
And it bears repeating: Never. Send. Cash.
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Already been scammed? Here’s what to do.
If a scammer has already gotten hold of your personal information or money, act fast:
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Block the scammer so they can’t reach out again.
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Cut off their access to your bank account or payment method, if you provided that information. Call your bank immediately. If you sent a wire transfer or gift card, contact the issuer and tell the company you have been scammed. Change your passwords. Freeze your credit.
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Report your stolen information. Go to IdentityTheft.gov to create a government-recommended recovery plan. Report the scam to the Social Security Administration’s fraud hotline if you handed over your SSN.
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Stay calm. The vast majority of Americans have been scammed in one way or another. There is help out there, and you can prepare your defenses for next time.
Source: https://mashable.com/tech/how-to-protect-yourself-voice-clones-audio-deepfake
