Florida woman warns of AI-generated scam call impersonating her daughter

A woman named Erika Andersen from Florida experienced an alarming incident when she received a video call on her phone showing and sounding like her 17-year-old daughter, asking her to open the front door because she felt unwell. The call came from her daughter's phone number, and both the image and voice appeared genuine.

However, Andersen grew suspicious because her daughter should have been at school at that moment, since she personally drives her daughter to and from school every day. Checking her home security cameras, she saw no one at the door.

Suspicious signs

To verify the caller's identity, Andersen asked a question only her real daughter would know the answer to — about what the family had eaten for dinner the night before. Instead of answering, the caller grew impatient and kept insisting she open the door without responding to the question. This prompted Andersen to end the call.

She later noticed another unusual detail — the call never appeared in her phone's call history. After contacting her daughter's school and speaking with her daughter directly, Andersen confirmed her daughter had never made the call.

Possible use of artificial intelligence

Andersen believes the scammers may have used artificial intelligence technology to replicate her daughter's voice and appearance. She reported the incident to local police as well as the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, though no official response had been received at the time of reporting.

Following the incident, the family implemented additional safety measures — agreeing on secret code words to verify each other's identity, changing their home alarm code, repositioning their security cameras, and installing two additional cameras. Andersen is urging other families not to rely solely on what they see or hear on a phone screen, and to set up similar precautionary measures in advance.