BBB warns that scammers can use artificial intelligence to clone familiar voices and impersonate relatives, employers or others to request money or personal information. Photo courtesy of Better Business Bureau

MARYSVILLE, CA (MPG) - A familiar voice on the telephone may no longer be enough to confirm who is calling.

The Better Business Bureau is warning consumers that scammers can use artificial intelligence to clone a person's voice and create convincing telephone calls or voicemail messages designed to steal money or personal information.

Voice-cloning technology can reproduce a person's voice using a small audio sample, according to BBB. Scammers can then use the cloned voice to impersonate relatives, employers or others a victim trusts.

The technology adds another layer to impersonation and emergency scams, which often rely on creating a sense of urgency before a victim has time to verify the caller's story.

In one workplace scenario described by BBB, an employee receives what appears to be a voicemail from a supervisor directing the employee to wire thousands of dollars to a vendor for an urgent project. The employee follows the instructions only to later discover the supervisor never made the request.

Similar schemes can target families.

A scammer may impersonate a child, grandchild or other relative and claim to have been injured, arrested or involved in another emergency. The caller may provide convincing details before asking the victim to immediately send money through a digital payment service, gift card or other method.

One consumer told BBB Scam Tracker that a caller sounded like her daughter-in-law and claimed she had been pulled over and suffered a broken nose. The caller repeatedly asked the woman to write down the name and telephone number of a supposed attorney.

“Her voice sounded just like my daughter-in-law,” the consumer reported.

BBB recommends resisting pressure to act immediately, regardless of how convincing the caller sounds. Consumers should hang up and contact the person directly using a telephone number they already know rather than a number supplied by the caller or displayed through caller ID.

Families can add another safeguard by establishing a secret word or phrase that can be used to verify someone's identity during an unexpected or urgent call.

The phrase should be memorable to family members but difficult for someone else to discover. BBB cautions against using information that may be available online, including birthdays, addresses, street names or pets. A family verification phrase should also remain separate from passwords used for online accounts.

Families should avoid mentioning or sharing the phrase on social media, through public posts or in other places where a scammer could find it.

Businesses face similar risks from scammers impersonating executives, supervisors or vendors. BBB recommends establishing procedures requiring employees to independently verify unexpected requests to transfer money or change payment information rather than relying solely on a telephone call, voicemail or email.

Consumers should also consider requests for immediate payment through gift cards, wire transfers or digital payment applications a warning sign and verify the request before sending money.

Suspected scams can be reported through BBB Scam Tracker at http://BBB.org/ScamTracker. Additional information about artificial intelligence and scams is available at http://BBB.org.