Voice cloning scams use AI to copy a real person's voice. The scammer then uses that voice on the phone to get your money, your card number, or your bank details.
One woman lost $56,000 to a caller who said he was from her bank
In September 2026, a federal court in California sentenced a 30-year-old man to 57 months in prison. He admitted that he and his partners called older people and said they worked for the victim's bank. They said they were looking into fraud on the account, and they got the victims to give up their bank cards.
News reports say a 72-year-old woman lost $56,000. An 80-year-old woman had more than $43,000 charged or withdrawn on her cards, including $22,000 at Apple stores. One victim said the call showed her bank's name on caller ID.
The court ordered him to pay back more than $270,000. In messages to a partner, he called the victims "vics" and wrote that the "targets are endless."
Nothing in these reports says he used a cloned voice. He got that money by calling people and pretending to work for their bank. A scammer who uses AI can go one step further, because the voice on the phone can sound like someone you know.
The FBI says a cloned voice can sound nearly identical to the real person
The FBI warned in July 2026 that a cloned voice "can sound nearly identical" to a real call from someone you know. So do not rely on the sound of the voice alone.
The FBI's 2025 crime report counted more than 22,000 complaints about AI scams, with losses over $893 million. That number covers every kind of AI scam, so it includes more than voice calls. The same report says people lost more than $5 million in 2025 to scams where a caller pretends to be a family member in trouble. It says scammers use voice cloning to copy that family member's voice.
How to check any caller in four steps
The first three steps and the family secret word come from the FBI's advice on AI fraud. Use all four steps on any call that asks for money or private information.
- Hang up. A real bank or vendor can wait while you call back.
- Find the phone number yourself. Use the number on the back of your card, on your statement, or on an old invoice. Do not use a number the caller gives you, and do not trust caller ID.
- Call that number. Ask if anyone there called you. If they say no, treat the call as a scam.
- Set a secret word. Agree on a word with your family and with anyone at work who can approve a payment. If a caller sounds like your boss or your daughter but cannot say the word, hang up.
Slow down if the caller rushes you. The FBI tells people to resist pressure to act fast. Scammers want you to act before you can check their story.
Your card number can stay in a call recording after you read it aloud
Scammers are one risk on a phone call. A call recording is another risk, even when you called a real company.
Customer support teams can record their calls. If you read your card number during a recorded call, the number goes into that recording. Zendesk is a popular customer support tool, and its own help page says Zendesk Voice "can't redact PII/PCI data from call recording audio files." That means Zendesk's phone product cannot remove personal details or card numbers from the audio.
Zendesk can remove card numbers from written call transcripts if the business using it pays for an add-on. To keep the number from playing back, Zendesk tells companies to delete the recording. Zendesk's separate Contact Center product can remove card numbers from recordings, so this problem depends on which product a company uses.
I also run CallTutor, a company that removes card numbers from Zendesk call recordings. Zendesk Voice is also called Zendesk Talk. If your business takes calls in Zendesk, my Zendesk Talk review shows screenshots of a card number in a Zendesk ticket.
Mail a check to the real company address when you do not trust the call
You do not have to pay on the phone. Tell the caller you will mail a check, then hang up. A check you mail never gets read aloud, so your numbers stay out of the call recording. It also gives you time to check who you are paying.
Before you mail anything, confirm the address in one of these ways:
- Use the address on an old invoice or statement from that company.
- Type the company's website yourself and find its mailing address on the site. Do not click a link the caller sent you.
- Search the company's name on your Secretary of State's website, then call the company if the address there differs.
If the address the caller gives you does not match, do not send the check. Call the company on a number you found yourself.
A check has its own risks, so it is not safer in every way. Every check shows your bank's routing number and your account number. Thieves also steal checks from the mail. A 2023 federal alert cited 299,020 mail theft complaints in one year, up 161% from the year before. In a 2026 survey of finance workers, 58% named paper checks as the payment type criminals targeted most in 2025.
So write the company's full legal name on the "Pay to the order of" line, and hand your check to a clerk inside the post office. Then watch your bank account until the check clears.
If your own customers pay you by check, you can print a free deposit slip for your bank. If they want to pay you over the phone, here is how to take a check payment by phone.
What to do if you already gave a caller your card or bank number
- Call your bank right away, using the number on the back of your card or on your statement.
- Ask the bank to block the card or the account and to show you any recent charges you did not make.
- Report the call to the FBI at ic3.gov and to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
Report it quickly, even if the amount is small. The sooner your bank hears from you, the sooner it can try to stop the money.