Deepfake voice scams are more sophisticated than ever: How to keep your family safe

Earlier this month, Florida mom Sharon Brightwell received a panicked call from her daughter, who said she was involved in a car crash that injured a pregnant woman. But it wasn’t Brightwell’s daughter, April, on the other end of the line; it was a cloned voice of hers.

After the deepfake made up a story about April driving and texting and stating her phone was confiscated by police — hence, the unknown phone number she allegedly called from — a man came on the line pretending to be a public defender and requested $15,000 to bail out April. Brightwell complied, gathering the cash, placing it in a box, and handing it to an ...