Vishing and cloned voices

What you'll get from this chapter: Why a familiar voice on the phone is no longer proof of who is calling, and three habits that defeat voice scams, including a family code word.

Part III: Smartphone Survival Kit · Chapter 3 of 14

Last reviewed: October 18, 2026

A few seconds of recorded audio is now enough for software to imitate a familiar voice on a phone call.

Voice phishing, or vishing, is now one of the top ways attackers get in. The security firm CrowdStrike measured a 442% increase in vishing between the first and second halves of 2024.¹ Mandiant, Google’s incident-response team, found voice phishing was the second most common way attackers got into the organizations it investigated in 2025.² In 2025, the FBI’s first-ever category for artificial intelligence (AI) logged 22,364 complaints and about $893 million in losses.³

The call sounds like a child in trouble, a bank fraud desk, Apple Support, or a boss on a video call. Pressure is the product. Caller identification can be faked. That is caller ID spoofing: the name on the screen is not proof of who is calling. A caller who claims to be Microsoft support and asks for gift cards is using the same script. Real institutions will wait while you hang up and call back on a number from your statement or their official website.

The most painful voice scam targets grandparents and parents. The next chapter covers family emergency calls.