TALLMADGE, Ohio — "I answered the phone, the voice on the other side was my oldest son crying," Lisa Gibson recounted. "And he said, 'Mom, it's me,' and he used his name."
It's the call no parent wants to get: one of desperation from their child. But that's exactly the call Gibson got Wednesday just before noon.
It was her son's voice, explaining he had been in a car accident.
"I asked if he was OK," she told 3News. "He said his nose was broken and he had some stitches and that he had hit somebody."
The call came from a blocked ID, which Gibson didn't think was unusual because her son is in the military and lives out of state.
"By this time, I was in an absolute panic, because I had just spoken with my son," Gibson said. "His voice, his mannerisms, everything about that call told me it was absolutely my son."
That voice told her to expect a call from an attorney, and just moments later, another call came in. The "attorney" told Gibson her son was taken to jail and needed money for bail.
"He says, 'Any amount you can get,'" Gibson remembered him telling her. "'Call me back and let me know what amount you can get.'"
Gibson and her husband were minutes from booking a flight to get their son, but then, something unexpected happened: She got another call, this time from her son's phone.
"He said he had been woken up by a bunch of messages from people saying 'Oh my God, are you OK? We heard you were in an accident,'" she said.
Tallmadge police believe someone used AI to spoof Gibson's son's voice. They say this scam is more common that you might thing and also very believable, because of technology that's readily available for anyone with a smartphone.
"The sound, it was her son's voice," Tallmadge Police Chief Ron Williams concurred. "That's the twist."
A child begging and crying for help from his mother in a time of emergency. Gibson knows the call was fake and she didn't end up being scammed of any money, but the panic was very real.
"The second you pick up your phone and say 'Hello,' they have your voice," she said of the tactics scammers use. "So, anybody is at risk, and it's out there."
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