In the past month, I’ve encountered two disturbing variations of celebrity scams—both equally frightening.
🚨 Case #1: The “Mark Harmon” Scam
A woman was convinced that Mark Harmon (from NCIS) was her boyfriend. She received voicemail messages in his voice, telling her he wanted to meet her. When he asked her to “reserve” a table at an expensive Beverly Hills restaurant, she paid $500 with her credit card. Then, Mark (or rather, his AI-generated voice) rescheduled, and she paid another $500.
Luckily, she told her daughter about her disappointment over missing their date. Her daughter quickly realized it was a scam—but her mother still believes the voice was real. Now, we have to figure out how to protect her.
🚨 Case #2: “Elon Musk” Wants to Help
Another client’s mother received a call from Elon Musk offering to help her. She was excited and called her daughter, who had to urgently warn her not to click anything or provide information. Now, she’s receiving daily messages from “Elon” with links asking her to invest money.
I advised them to visit the Apple Store to set up “parental” controls on her devices. Hopefully, this will prevent her from clicking on future scams—but it’s a constant battle. My client is also working on convincing her mother to meet with me so we can set up stronger legal protections.
💡 What You Need to Know:
➡️ Artificial intelligence can now take a real celebrity’s voice and make it say anything.
➡️ Scammers use AI-generated voices to manipulate people, especially older adults.
➡️ Protecting loved ones from scams requires legal and technical safeguards.
If you want to create a plan to protect your parent from falling for scams, give me a call.
