AI Voice Cloning: The Newest Threat in Impersonation Fraud

Published Date : 8/14/2025 

AI voice cloning is causing a surge in impersonation fraud, with U.S. consumers losing nearly $3 billion in 2023. Learn how this technology is being misused and what measures are being taken to combat it. 

In the Hunger Games franchise, engineered mutant birds called jabberjays drive people to madness by mimicking the voices of their loved ones in pain. This is an apt metaphor for the wave of AI voice cloning fraud plaguing U.S. consumers, who collectively lost nearly $3 billion to imposter scams in 2023 alone. Many of these target the elderly, sometimes posing as relatives in need.

In response, more than 75,000 people have signed a petition, delivered by Consumer Reports, urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to hold companies that operate biometric AI voice cloning products accountable. The petition calls for protection of all Americans from deepfakes, which are increasingly difficult to detect and can cause significant financial and emotional harm.

“AI voice cloning tools are making it easier than ever for scammers to impersonate someone’s voice,” says Grace Gedye, policy analyst for AI issues at Consumer Reports. “These AI-enabled scams are increasingly difficult to detect, are costing consumers real money, and can present a threat to our national security as we recently saw when someone impersonated Secretary of State Marco Rubio. We urgently need proper oversight and guardrails for this technology.”

Consumer Reports is calling on the FTC, as well as national and state policymakers, to investigate AI voice cloning companies with insufficient guardrails and address the dangers this emerging technology presents to consumers. Specific recommendations include using Section 5 powers to investigate companies that facilitate voice-cloning scams and hold them accountable, recommencing work on the Individual Impersonation rulemaking (SNPRM, R207000), and urging state Attorneys General to use their laws and enforcement tools to investigate these voice cloning apps and hold companies accountable.

Presumably, the best thing for companies to do to protect customers would be to slow down in developing cheap, freely available voice cloning tools. Alas, the AI gold rush continues, and large companies continue to develop more sophisticated biometric voice technology. The Register reports that new capabilities in Microsoft’s Azure AI Speech allow users to rapidly generate a voice replica with just a few seconds of sampled speech.

The new zero-shot text-to-speech model, named “DragonV2.1Neural,” produces more natural-sounding and expressive voices and will generate audio in more than 100 supported languages. Microsoft says it “unlocks a wide range of applications, from customizing chatbot voices to dubbing video content in an actor’s original voice across multiple languages, enabling truly immersive and individualized audio experiences.” It claims its policies require anyone whose voice is reproduced to have given consent, but how it intends to enforce this is an open question.

As to what Silicon Valley’s giants think about the potential for easy voice cloning or synthesis to supercharge fraud, one need look no further than OpenAI’s Sam Altman, who recently threw some dirt at voice authentication efforts, saying, “apparently there are some financial institutions that will accept the voiceprint as authentication. That is a crazy thing to still be doing. Like, AI has fully defeated that.”

Pindrop collaboration allows Nvidia to rein in zero-shot cloning feature, highlighting the ongoing efforts to balance technological advancement with ethical and security considerations. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS): 

Q: What is AI voice cloning?

A: AI voice cloning is a technology that uses artificial intelligence to mimic a person's voice. It can be used to create realistic audio that sounds like a specific individual, making it difficult to distinguish from the real thing.

Q: How is AI voice cloning used in fraud?

A: Scammers use AI voice cloning to impersonate individuals, often posing as family members or trusted contacts. They can use this technology to trick people into sharing sensitive information or sending money.

Q: What is Consumer Reports doing about AI voice cloning fraud?

A: Consumer Reports has launched a petition urging the FTC to hold companies accountable for the misuse of AI voice cloning technology. They are calling for proper oversight and guardrails to protect consumers from deepfake scams.

Q: What new capabilities does Microsoft's Azure AI Speech offer?

A: Microsoft’s Azure AI Speech now includes a zero-shot text-to-speech model called ‘DragonV2.1Neural,’ which can generate a realistic voice replica with just a few seconds of sampled speech. This model supports over 100 languages and is designed for various applications, from chatbot customization to video dubbing.

Q: What are the concerns about voice authentication in financial institutions?

A: OpenAI’s Sam Altman has criticized the use of voiceprints for authentication in financial institutions, stating that AI has fully defeated this method. This highlights the need for more secure and reliable authentication methods to protect against fraud. 

More Related Topics :