CHEROKEE COUNTY, Ga. — Imagine getting a call from what you think is a relative of yours. On the other end of the line, they are crying and saying they were kidnapped. Then the voice asks for thousands of dollars in exchange for that relative of yours.
Police said these scam calls are becoming a more common occurrence due to artificial intelligence.
For Cherokee County resident Debbie Shelton Moore, it was whom she thought was her daughter on the other end of the line.
"My heart is beating and I'm shaking," she recalled the moment she got the call. "I'm shaking thinking about it right now."
It was a six-minute phone call, but to her, it felt like a lifetime.
When she picked up the call from a '678' number, she thought it was her 22-year-old daughter, Lauren, who lives in Kennesaw.
"It just sounded so much like her. It was 100% believable," she said. "Enough to almost give me a heart attack from sheer panic."
Shelton Moore thought Lauren had gotten in a car accident and was calling for help. That's until she heard what sounded like three different men on the call, too.
“The man had said, 'Your daughter's been kidnapped and we want $50,000.' Then they had her crying, like, 'Mom, mom' in the background. It was her voice and that's why I was totally freaking out," she said.
Shelton Moore checked Lauren’s location, which showed her stalled on Cobb Parkway.
“I [was] thinking she’s in the back because he said, 'We have her in the back of the truck.'"
Her husband, who works in cybersecurity and overheard what was going on, FaceTimed Lauren, who told him she was safe and sound.
That’s when Shelton Moore realized she was in the process of getting scammed.
"It was all just kind of a blur because all I was thinking was, 'How am I going to get my daughter? How in the world are we supposed to get him money?'" she added.
They called the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office, which looped in Kennesaw Police, who dispatched officers to make sure Lauren was actually safe. They found that she was.
Shelton Moore said Lauren even picked up on the scam, which she had seen on apps like TikTok.
Now Shelton Moore hopes other families don't receive the same call.
“I'm very well aware of scammers and scams and IRS scams and the fake jury duty," she recognized. "But of course, when you hear their voice, you're not going to think clearly and you will panic.”
Earlier this month, Cobb County Police said scammers are starting to use AI technology to make calls like that one.
Computer security company McAfee said 1 in 4 people have experienced an AI phone clone or know someone who has.
Law enforcement recommends calling and checking on your loved one’s location, calling police, and doing something Shelton Moore has started to do with her family.
"The whole family needs to have a safe word or safe phrase that they’re not going to forget under duress," she said.
Police highly recommend having that safe phrase with your family, and educating them on this new scam that is making the rounds.