Who is Debbie Moore? Georgia mother nearly suffers a heart attack after AI-generated phone call stages daughter’s kidnap, demands $50K ransom
KENNESAW, GEORGIA: A Georgia mother, Debbie Shelton Moore, was shocked and terrified after she received a phone call from a number that sounded like her daughter, Lauren, who lives in Kennesaw, Georgia. She heard a voice that was identical to her daughter where she was crying and pleading for help. Then, a man’s voice came on the line and told her that her daughter had been kidnapped and that they wanted $50,000 for her release.
“It was her voice and that’s why I was totally freaking out,” Moore told Fox News. “It was 100% believable, enough to almost give me a heart attack from sheer panic.”
'My heart is beating and I’m shaking'
She checked her daughter’s location on her phone and saw that she was stuck on Cobb Parkway. She feared that she was in the back of a truck as the kidnapper had claimed. “My heart is beating and I’m shaking,” she recalled. “I’m shaking thinking about it right now.” She said the phone call lasted for six minutes but felt like a lifetime. Initially, she thought her daughter has gotten into a car accident and was calling for help, but then she heard three different men on the call. “I [was] thinking she’s in the back because he said, 'We have her in the back of the truck.'"
'Your daughter's been kidnapped and we want $50,000'
“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.
Luckily, her husband, who works in cybersecurity, was able to contact their daughter via FaceTime and confirm that she was safe and sound. He realized that they were being scammed by someone who had used artificial intelligence to clone their daughter’s voice.
'How am I going to get my daughter?'
“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?’” Debbie Moore told 11 Live. She reported the incident to the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, who advised her to create a safe word or phrase with her family members in case of such scams. The Cobb County Sheriff’s Office also issued a warning earlier this month about the rise of AI scams in the county. Moore said Lauren even picked up on the scam, which she had seen on apps like TikTok.
Now, 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.”