Posted on 05/23/2025 8:21:59 PM PDT by Libloather
This is no way to keep up with grandma.
Cruel scammers are cheating elderly people out of millions of dollars with a new high tech scam that uses AI to find their grandchildren’s voices on TikTok and then use the sounds to make phony phone calls designed to trick the seniors, cops on Long Island warned Friday.
The scam involves criminals finding a vulnerable and elderly person with grandkids — then scouring social media sites like TikTok for videos of the young people speaking.
They then use voice-cloning software and spoofed phone numbers to make panicked calls pretending to be that grandchild, claiming they’ve been arrested or hurt and urgently need bail money or medical funds.
“They’re always trying to stay a step ahead,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina told The Post on Friday.
Catalina confirmed the department has been seeing a growing number of these cases, and said the software criminals are using can perfectly emulate someone else’s voice — often fooling the area’s vulnerable and elderly population.
“It’s often times a grandchild scheme we’re seeing, where the individual will call and say that they are in some kind of trouble that requires money,” Catalina said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Tons of AI video ads out there selling everything from binoculars to dentures. Not a pure scam I guess, just a run of the mill rip-off.
I HAVE BEEN GETTING “GRANDMA, I’M IN JAIL, etc” CALLS for YEARS.
I SWEAR AT THEM IN HIGH DECIBELS.....
BEEN PRETTY QUIET LATELY.
I ALSO GET THE “WILL YOU SELL YOUR HOUSE FOR CASH? CALLS”
Told the guy yesterday-—”SURE—I WANT $3 MILLION DOLLARS ALL CASH.”
HE SAID: “IS THAT A REAL PRICE?”
I SAID “WHY WOULDN’T IT BE??? “ CLICK
Someone tried that with my mom when she was 95 saying that my nephew needed money for bail. She yelled at the caller and said, “you’re lying! My grandson would never be in jail!”
(And God help any caller representing a Democrat candidate.)
Oh, this wonderful AI is just getting started... :)
It will be such a wonderful Utopian AI world... :)
This scam has been going on, FOR decades, on the phone.
The first one we got, was early in the morning, my grand was in the lower grades, the voice of the phone was that of an adult. The kiddo was in school, didn't have an A PARENT? iPhone, and this was very obviously a SCAM, from the first "HELLO"!
If you ever get such a call, WHY ISN'T YOUR SUPPOSED GRANDCHILD CALLING A PARENT; WHY YOU?
And look at the phone #!
If the call is on your cell phone, you WILL be told it's a SCAM.
We get those “sell your house” calls to. I LOVE your answer!
TOO, not “to”.
The scam involves criminals finding a vulnerable and elderly person with grandkids — then scouring social media sites like TikTok for videos of the young people speaking.
They then use voice-cloning software and spoofed phone numbers to make panicked calls pretending to be that grandchild, claiming they’ve been arrested or hurt and urgently need bail money or medical funds.
The grandkids don’t have a phone yet, but I dropped the landline years ago. I never answer a call unless I see the name. My blocked callers list is huge!
The grandkids don’t have a phone yet, but I dropped the landline years ago. I never answer a call unless I see the name. My blocked callers list is huge!
******************************************************
Been blocking calls for years. No idea how long it is.
Use an app called ‘knowncalls’. It’s a whitelist that uses your contact list, no external data required. If the number isn’t in your contacts list it gets blocked.
Put it in both phones - got tired of hearing the complaints from wifey-dear.
Since I don’t have any grandchildren, and never will, I’d love for one of these a-holes to call me.
I do have fun with them...tell ‘em they were adopted, etc.
‘let me talk to the sheriff on duty.’
‘do you need my bank account #? Just wait a minute while I get it.’
Started blocking calls on my Spectrum landline which never worked. Chose to turn the ringer off so I wasn't bothered. Finally got rid of the landline and cable a couple of years ago, so the only service I have with Spectrum is internet.
When I got my first cell phone, it wasn't a smart phone, just a plain 3G phone.
When I was forced to get a 4G phone, I bought an iPhone because I've always used Macs. This is only my second iPhone and I use Verizon's call filter. The phone is set to only ring when someone in my contact list calls. All other calls are silenced. Many are completely blocked as they are suspected spam. Other calls are silenced, and if they show up in my recent calls, and I don't recognize them, I block, hit delete, and also report them as junk.
Same thing with texts I receive that are clearly junk, hit delete and report them as junk. Last year, the political texts were ridiculous. I deleted and reported all of them as junk. Thankfully they stopped after the election.
Recently, I've gotten two or three texts from someone claiming to be associated with EZ Pass, NY State's thruway toll system. I have an account and know how much money I have in it. The texts are telling me I owe money. Last one provided a link, which of course I didn't click on. The number they called from had a country code of 63, which is the Philippines. All were deleted and reported as junk.
LOL!! The only phone I use is my iPhone, and with Verizon's call filter that blocks suspected spam calls, and only rings when someone in my contact list calls, I'll likely never get one of those calls to bust their chops.
When I had my Spectrum landline, my number was the same as the Chenango County jail in another county in NY State. The only difference was the area code. I ended up with people leaving messages on my machine, calling about their son in the jail, blah, blah, blah. I even had the county court calling me leaving messages. People just never bothered to dial the right area code.
Only three million? I always demand ten million cash for our place and I’m thinking of increasing that to fifteen million since we got new siding and had the place painted.
Asking a ridiculous price doesn’t stop the calls, but it amuses me, and who knows? Maybe they’ll pay it one of these times.
Someone tried that with my mom when she was 95 saying that my nephew needed money for bail. She yelled at the caller and said, “you’re lying! My grandson would never be in jail!”
(And God help any caller representing a Democrat candidate.)
My late mother was the same way. She’d tell them her grandsons certainly wouldn’t call her for money since she didn’t have any.
Mom thought it was amusing to keep the scammers on the line and make them think she might actually fall for their scams. We tried to keep her uptodate on the latest scams going around, including the grandchild in distress, just to make sure, but she was pretty savvy. Once she got a call that her son was in trouble and needed a couple thousand dollars immediately. My parents had only daughters so that call was a failure from the get-go.
"I can't reach Mom or Dad! Maybe they have no cell phone coverage wherever they are."
"I called home and left a message hours ago! No one will pick up! I'm worried about Mom and Dad, but I gotta get out of jail (on a trumped-up charge) first!"
"The police confiscated my mobile phone / my battery is dead! I'm standing here in a holding area, and a friendly stranger is letting me use his phone!"
Regards,
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