Scammers clone Wake County deputy's voice in sophisticated phone scam
WAKE COUNTY, N.C. (WTVD) -- It's a call you may get claiming to be about an urgent legal matter and the call appears to be from Wake County Sheriff's Office.
An ABC11 viewer shared with us a voicemail that she got.
The caller claimed he was a deputy with the Wake County Sheriff's Office, and he even had the exact name of the person and stated: "This is in regards to some urgent legal matters. If you can return my call."
Instead of calling the number left on the voicemail, she directly called the Wake County Sheriff's Office and learned this is a scam.
"These numbers are being spoofed. So, they can basically ghost a phone number and make it look like it's maybe coming from the sheriff's office or really anybody, but there really, you know, obviously coming from them, and so they can make it look like a legit phone call," said Sgt. Kurt Steinberger.
"No agency is going to be calling you for money over the phone."
He confirms the deputy's name used in the voicemail used to work with the Wake Sheriff's office, and yes, it even sounds like him.
"We've gotten phone calls from these scammers trying to get our basically our voice with our names and our rank and then basically recording that and using that in future phone calls, you know, to try to scam citizens," said Sgt. Steinberger.
Once scammers get just a little bit of someone's voice, thanks to advanced technology such as AI, Sgt. Steinberger says they can create these scams and have very detailed information on who they are calling.
"They're calling about a loved one that's been arrested, and once again, arrest records are public information. You can run your phone number, and a lot of times it's going to show your name, where you live, who you're married to, and might even have any children. There's a lot of information out there that they're gaining access to, and they're able to put it into a story that makes it really believable for people to fall victim to."
The biggest thing to remember if you get one of these calls, don't answer. If you do, and are unsure it's a scam, do not give them any money or personal information. Instead, hang up and call the Wake County Sheriff's Department or the law enforcement agency that supposedly called you talk to them about it directly.
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