Northern Regional police warning families over new spoofing scam

ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. — Northern Regional police are warning families after a scary spoofing scam was recently reported.

A local woman told police she got a call from her teenage daughter’s phone number with her daughter’s name listed as the caller. And it even sounded like her daughter’s voice, claiming she had been kidnapped.

“In the child’s voice, said ‘Hey, I’ve been abducted. We need to send money and someone got on the phone and said yeah I have your daughter send money or we are going to harm her,’” said Police Chief John Sicilia.

Fortunately, the victim was standing next to her daughter at the time and knew immediately it was a scam. “Had she not been with her daughter, we don’t know what would have happened. That’s terrifying to think your child is possibly being kidnapped,” said Chief Silicia.

This is the first time Northern Regional Police had a spoofing scam like this reported in their area.

A mom in Wexford told Channel 11 that this is very concerning.

“I would probably just jump into absolute panic,” said Michelle Silberman.

Sicilia said perpetrators are possibly recording people’s voices over spam calls or social media and then using artificial intelligence to resemble loved ones’ voices-  to scam people out of money.

“If I had to speculate, say anyone who answers their phone, your voice could be recorded. Any video you have on social media. the technology is out there where the voice can be replicated,” said Chief Sicilia.

The chief suggests families come up with a safe word ahead of time to confirm it’s actually their loved one on the phone in these situations. Parents think that’s a good idea.

“We have to be able to actually confirm it’s our kids,” said Silberman. “Scams are so bad now, we don’t even know what’s real and what’s not anymore.”

Chief Silicia said if you get one of these calls, call your loved one separately and confirm they are okay. And report the scam to police.

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