Very good suggestion

That scam was popular here in Argentina a few years ago. We call it "virtual kidnaping" https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/virtual-kidnapping , nobody is kidnaped, it's just a scam using a phone call.

It's not very important that the voice is similar to the supposed victim. Usually the person in the call is weeping and it's very difficult to recognize the voice. Moreover a confusing voice at 2am may be interpreted as any of your relatives or friends, but an exact voice can be interpreted only as one and it's easier to know that that person is safe.

Some scammers tried to pull this scam off on my stepfather years ago. He got a call that, through the wailing and tears, told him that I'd been thrown into a Mexican prison and needed bail money immediately.

He was 90% convinced that it was true, but my mother made him call me before doing anything, which saved him about $10k. She thought it was suspicious that I would have left the country without mentioning it to her.

If the person he was talking to was relatively calm and sounded like me, it might have been successful.

At least here, most were just calling random telephone and letting people guess who is the kidnaped person

> Bububu. Hi, I'm ... bububu

> John?

> Bububu. Yes, I'm John. bububu. I'm in bububu ... the jail in ... bububu

> Mexico?

> Bububu. Yes, In Mexico. bububu. And I need money ... bububu

There are other that research the victim and have more data for a targeted call, but it's more difficult so most cases where random calls where they don't have a sample voice of the victim.

It is frightening that we have gotten to this point already.

Society definitely needs to adapt to this new norm; we are trying to roll this out as safely as possible, but others are not as careful, and this technology will just become more ubiquitous over time.