‘It was his voice’: An AI scammer cloned her son's voice and nearly convinced one mom to send money — but one small red flag gave him away

That’s what Brenda Brookins thought was happening when she answered a phone call one afternoon around the time her son normally gets off work. The voice on the other end sounded exactly like his.

“I picked up the phone, and I said, ‘Hello,’ and he’s like ‘Mom? Mom?’ And it was his voice!” Brookins told Syracuse-based television station WSYR-TV.

“He said, ‘I just had a car accident.’ I said, ‘Are you OK?’ He said, ‘Mom, I need help!”

As the conversation continued, however, Brookins began to notice details that didn’t quite fit.

One of the first red flags was the word “mum” — a term she said her son has never used. Then another person joined the call, claiming to be a police officer at the scene of the accident. But there was one more clue that something wasn’t adding up. Although her son doesn’t live in New York, the call came from a 315 area code.

“I thought it could’ve been a police officer’s phone, but then when I sat and thought about it, the area code wasn’t right,” she said.

Here’s how AI voice-cloning scams work and what you can do to protect yourself.

When a familiar voice isn’t real

AI voice-cloning scams use artificial intelligence to recreate a person’s voice, often from audio clips found online. Scammers can then use the technology to make phone calls that sound remarkably similar to a friend, child or other loved one.

As the technology becomes more accessible, these types of scams are becoming increasingly common. According to a 2026 survey by call protection company Hiya, one in four Americans reported receiving a deepfake voice call in the past year.