Robot Calls, Real Crimes

Sam Lubar ‘28
JOUR 320 Student
lubarspa@lakeforest.edu

The phone rang repeatedly after a Lake Forest grandfather had spoken to his son. His son had hung up to go to his grandson’s baseball game. Answering the call, the grandfather heard a familiar voice. It was his grandson, and the young man sounded panicky and distraught. 

“I need money,” he said, crying.

Wait, the grandfather thought. This can’t be my grandson. He’s playing in a baseball game.

Then who was it? And why did he sound so much like his grandson? The grandfather (whom Lake Forest police declined to identify) hung up, shaken but relieved he wasn’t deceived. 

It turned out the phone call was generated by artificial intelligence technology. It’s a scam that is occurring more and more nationwide, especially with the rapid improvements in AI, says Lake Forest Deputy Police Chief Michael Lange.

This is how it works:

• First, someone finds a video clip that features a familiar voice, typically from a younger family member.
• Second, they call a grandparent or older relative, assuming that they will not question helping out a grandchild in a time of need.
• Third, the scammers use AI to mask their voice with the voice from the video and ask for money. They often say they’re in trouble and try to sound terrified. 

A 2023 global study done by McAfee Labs revealed that out of 7,000 people surveyed, one in four said that they had experienced an AI voice cloning attack or knew someone who had. 

In 2024, someone used AI to create a video feed of a finance employee’s coworkers. He had previously received an email allegedly from the chief financial officer discussing a secret transaction that he had to carry out. The employee was initially unconvinced, but after joining a conference call where everyone appeared to be his coworkers, he sent away the equivalent of $25.6 million, reported CNN. 

Another scam featured viral footage of Elon Musk convincing people to invest their money in a stock trading platform called Quantum AI. The footage seemed to show Musk claiming that by joining early on, people could sell their shares with high returns and minimal risk, RMIT University reported. To a casual viewer, it looked real. 

 Other financial scams are also at play. In Lake Forest, an unidentified resident had $800,000 taken in a cryptocurrency scam, and got only half of it back, Lange said. Technological enhancements make it easier than ever to fall victim to a scam. 

“AI is definitely helping the criminals,” Lange said. 

Lange said he has been working together with local banks in Lake Forest to prevent these crimes by raising public awareness and urging bank tellers and others to be especially cautious when it comes to distributing large sums of money. 

When money is gone, everyone has to work fast to attempt its retrieval, a process that may involve the federal government, he said. Within one day, funds can be transferred to other countries like Mexico or China, making it nearly impossible to get back. 

It can feel embarrassing to fall prey to a scam, especially when AI is so convincing you think you know what you’re doing, Lange said. But it’s important to alert police for your safety, and the protection of others. 

“What we need to do is build the confidence up in the victims that we’re not going to judge them,” he said. “Then they’ll come to us for help.”

Here are some tips to avoid AI scams:

• If you feel a phone call might be a scam, hang up right away.
• Contact the real person or another family member to check the call’s authenticity.
• Contact local law enforcement if you have any doubts.