ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS A DREAM FOR CRIMINALS WHO ARE ALREADY HARNESSING THE NEW TECHNOLOGY TO THEIR GAIN
According to Jennifer DeStefano, it was a “typical Friday afternoon” in January this year when her phone rang. The mother of two from Arizona didn’t recognise the number, but thought it might be from the family doctor and took the call.
“Mom, I messed up,” her daughter Briana cried down the line. “Mom, these bad men have me. Help me, help me!” Before Briana could say any more, a man grabbed the phone. “Listen here, I have your daughter,” he said. “You tell anyone, you call the cops, I am going to pump her stomach full of drugs. I am going to have my way with her, drop her in Mexico, and you’ll never see her again.” The kidnappers then demanded $1million for Briana’s safe return. A distraught Jennifer’s terror was matched by confusion because her daughter was supposed to be on a ski trip with her father. Despite these thoughts swirling round her mind, remarkably, she held her nerve and kept the abductors talking. She told them the family could raise no more than $50,000 and they reluctantly accepted this payment. “You will agree to being picked up in a white van, with a bag over your head, so you don’t know where we are taking you,” they said. “You better have all $50,000 in cash, otherwise both you and your daughter are dead. If you don’t agree to this, you will never see your daughter again.”
Jennifer was actually at a dance studio with her other daughter when she took the call. There were other parents around her, so she briefly pressed mute, and asked the other parents to phone 911, as well as her husband and Briana.
Within a few minutes, one of the mothers told her that Briana was safe and well with her father on their ski trip. She passed Jennifer her phone. “Mom, I’m in bed,” Briana said. “I have no idea what’s going on. I’m safe. It’s OK.” Briana’s dad confirmed their daughter was with him. The sobbing voice on the end of the line had been generated by AI, and Briana had never been in danger. No one has been charged with the terrifying scam, which is just one of the growing number of schemes exploiting AI to commit fraud, scam, extort and compromise online security systems. Law enforcement knows the threat exists, but with the technology constantly evolving, it’s a battle to keep pace with increasingly tech-savvy criminals.
Jennifer appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in June to relive her terrifying experience. “My mind was whirling,” she said. “I don’t remember how many times I needed reassurance, but when I finally took hold of the fact that she was safe, I was furious. To go so far as to fake my daughter’s kidnapping was beyond the lowest of the low. I made a promise that I was going to stop them, that not only were they never going to hurt my daughter, but that they wer
