SEATTLE — A Seattle man received an alarming scam call this week where a caller sounded eerily similar to his sister.
“I pick up and there’s a very distressed-sounding woman on the other line,” Will Erstad said. “The voice sounded super familiar.”
Another voice, a man’s, claimed to be with Seattle Police, saying there had been a “really bad accident.”
“It’s tricky. They spike my emotions right off the bat... make me real scared. It’s hard to do,” Erstad said.
The man asked for Erstad’s personal information, like an address, and that’s when Erstad started to think something was up. He began asking the callers questions, which led to them hanging up.
“I’m pretty savvy about scam phone calls and I was even pretty close to giving away my personal information,” Erstad said.
He thinks a few things led to that: First, the immediate sound of a person crying on the other side of the line, the immediate nature of someone’s health and safety at risk, and how similar the woman’s voice sounded — to his sister.
He says he’s not sure if either of the voices were real or fake, making him suspicious at the possibility that at least one of them was Artificial Intelligence.
“I’m aware of AI voice artificing and aware of number spoofing and things like that. It can get pretty advanced,” Erstad said.
A simple web search can bring someone to AI voice generators, even voice “cloners,” similar to the Seattle crosswalks that were hacked, using the generated voice of Jeff Bezos.
“It really worries me. How hard is it for someone to call [my sister] and get some voice samples from her?” Erstad wonders. “Stuff like that is very terrifying and the technology is advancing so fast you might not be able to tell very soon.”
Seattle police are looking into scams similar to this. The King County Sheriff’s Office offered the following advice about scam calls:
- Ask specific questions. While caller ID can be faked, a scammer might not be able to answer specific questions or even answer them quickly or thoroughly. That is a good tip-off.
- Verify the call. Ask for a number, hang up, and call it back.
- Take a breath. Take a minute to gauge the situation to see if it seems like this is legitimate. Scammers are trying their hardest to manipulate you.
- This is always a good practice; limit the information you put out on social media in general, as that can definitely be used against you by a potential scammer.
- Always remember: law enforcement will never demand money or threaten to arrest you or tell you you have an outstanding warrant over the phone. When in doubt, hang up and call 911.
©2025 Cox Media Group
