Mother Recounts Horror of Deepfake Kidnapping Scam
HAVANA TIMES – Jennifer DeStefano, an Arizona mother, testified at a US Senate hearing this week about her harrowing experience with a deepfake scam that tricked her into thinking her daughter had been kidnapped. DeStefano says the fake kidnappers demanded a $50,000 ransom before she got in touch with her daughter, who was in fact safe and sound.
Jennifer DeStefano: “It was my daughter’s voice. It was her cries. It was her sobs. It was the way she spoke. I will never be able to shake that voice and the desperate cries for help out of my mind. It’s every parent’s worst nightmare to hear your child pleading with fear and pain, knowing that they’re being harmed and that you’re helpless. The longer this form of terror remains unpunishable, the farther and more egregious it will become. There is no limit to the depth of evil AI can enable.”