COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A Cherokee County mother has a warning for anyone who gets a call from a loved-one in distress after criminals used artificial intelligence to try and get her money.

Channel 2′s Steve Gehlbach spoke with the victim about how she figured out it was a scheme.

Debbie Shelton Moore picked up a call last Friday from a local number and heard what she thought was her 22-year-old daughter crying.

“She’s saying mom, mom…and it’s just so authentic.”

Moore now knows the voice wasn’t real and likely an AI, or artificial intelligence, generated copy.

“I’m calling out her name…like Lauren, Lauren? Where are you? Did you get in an accident?”

She says a total of three men then got on the line demanding her to pay up or she would never see her daughter again.

“…she’s been kidnapped, we have her in the back of the truck and we need $50,000.”

Moore’s husband called 911 after they pulled up an app on her phone showing her daughter’s location and then called her.

“My wife is talking to her daughter right now. Her daughter is fine…nothing has happened.”

Moore’s daughter told her she was at a QuikTrip on Cobb Parkway in Kennesaw and Facetimed her to let her know she was OK. Police went to her home to confirm it.

Fraud investigators with the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office told Channel 2 Action News about similar cases of fake AI kidnapping calls around the country. The criminals use someone’s actual voice from social media posts on Instagram or Tik-Tok and duplicate it.

“…that makes it look like your child, grandchild, whomever is in an incredibly scary situation,” Raj Shelat.

Law enforcement says it’s a good idea to come up with a secret word of code with your family members, so you know it’s really them.

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