The internet is awash with free AI web services that make it quick and easy to replicate a voice - all you need is a recording.

According to The Sun, using a cloned version of a person's voice, scammers can use it to call their loved ones, pretending to be in danger and requesting emergency money.

It's a growing trend, and Americans have already lost thousands of dollars, according to a report by The Washington Post.

Data from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) suggests that in 2022 there were over 36,000 reports of "imposter scams," with more than 5,000 of these happening over the phone.

Reported losses of imposter scams reached $11million. Any footage of you online, from a graduation speech on YouTube, to a holiday reel on your Instagram, or a clip of you on your daughter's TikTok, can now be replicated with AI voice-generating software.

The publicly available software analyzes your voice, including your age, gender, and accent. Next, it searches a large online database of voices to find similar ones and predict patterns, according to the report.

It re-creates the unique pitch, timber, and individual sounds of a voice, to generate a similar-sounding clone. Armed with a clone of your voice, text-to-speech tools allow scammers to call your loved ones and request emergency money.

One company capable of this is ElevenLabs, which started in 2022 and has already generated controversy for creating a replica of Emma Watson's voice to recite Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kamf," according to Vice.

In January, ElevenLabs, tweeted that it was seeing “an increasing number of voice cloning misuse cases,” and has subsequently announced that the cloning feature would no longer be available to users of the free version of its tool VoiceLab.

If you are called by a loved one in an emergency, but the number is unknown, or their language and voice sounds slightly off - you may be the target of a scam.

Call their saved contact number in your phone to verify the story before you do anything. If you do fall victim to an AI voice scam, immediately inform the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.