Police Say Scammers Used AI to Clone a Sheriff’s Voice
The scammers used the voice of a specific sheriff to impersonate him.
A Florida police department has revealed that scammers utilized AI to replicate the voice of Osceola County Sheriff Steve Moser, resulting in a recent incident where a resident received a voicemail claiming the message was from Moser. Sheriff Chris Blackmon disclosed to News6 that the scammers cloned the sheriff's voice and used his photo to make the call appear legitimate.
The Osceola County sheriff’s office has not yet commented on the matter. This type of scam, in which scammers impersonate police officers, is a third-degree felony in Florida. Similar scams have been reported in Georgia and Pennsylvania, involving jury duty and arrest warrant hoaxes, although these reports did not explicitly mention AI voice cloning.
Voice cloning scams have been prevalent for years, with scammers employing commercially available AI tools to impersonate individuals, particularly the elderly, families, and businesses. In 2024, 404 Media investigated deepfake scams that combined voice and video to defraud victims. Earlier this year, there was a report of scammers cloning the voice of a law firm’s managing partner using AI, resulting in the transfer of $108 million to a private bank.
Written by urgent.news from 404 Media's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
