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An Arizona family is warning others after they received a phone call from scammers who used artificial intelligence to clone their daughter's voice. Payton Bock described the scary experience in a TikTok video.
Bock said her parents received a phone call from someone who claimed he would harm her. The man then put Payton on the phone as she cried and begged her mother for help.
"It was super scary," Payton's mother DeLynne, told Todd Piro during an interview on Fox & Friends. "My husband actually took the phone call, and I was outside. He came out with this man on speakerphone using all kinds of foul language, screaming and yelling, saying that my daughter had hit him in a vehicle accident situation."
After Payton didn't answer her phone, DeLynne and her husband called the police, who advised them it was a scam. Despite the reassurances from the police, DeLynne was convinced she was actually talking to her daughter.
"I called the police, and they're saying this is possibly a scam situation. I said there is no way this is a scam. This is my daughter's voice," DeLynne said. "This wasn't just some person pretending… As a mother, you know your daughter's voice, and this was my daughter."
Eventually, the Phoenix Police Department managed to get a hold of Payton, who was safe at work.
"I called my mom, and I was like, 'Mom, I'm okay. I'm at work,' and then she was relieved, and I haven't heard like her sound like that at all ever in my life," she said.
While DeLynne was relieved her daughter was safe, the ordeal took an emotional toll on her.
"I cried for two days. Like it was just the most real scary thing I'd ever experienced. Worst day of my life," DeLynne said. "It truly was life-changing. It was that scary for me."
Payton said one of the most concerning things is the number of people who commented on her TikTok video, sharing similar stories.
"After I posted it on TikTok like my mom said, I thought that we were like the only ones who kind of experience something like this," Payton said. "If you go to my video, like in the comments, it's happened to so many people. So it has to be this upcoming thing with AI, specifically, which I'm just not a fan of at all."
Authorities have not identified the suspect.
Another woman in Arizona received a similar phone call in which a scammer threatened to drug and rape her 15-year-old daughter.