Center for Practical AI

CPAI Issue Brief · Safety & Fraud · Consumer protection

AI-Enabled Fraud & Voice Cloning

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AI voice clones and synthetic identities are supercharging fraud against consumers — and older adults are losing the most.

What’s happening

Scammers now clone voices from seconds of audio, generate fake identification, and build convincing synthetic personas at scale. AI does not invent fraud — it lowers the cost and raises the believability, especially for impersonation and "emergency" scams targeting families and older adults.

What the evidence shows

The FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report logged $20.9 billion in reported losses (up 26%) across more than a million complaints, and for the first time broke out a direct-AI category: 22,364 complaints totaling about $893 million. Adults 60+ reported roughly $7.7 billion, up 37%. The FTC reports a four-fold increase since 2020 in older adults losing $10,000 or more to impersonation scams. Because human deepfake detection is near chance, prevention rests on process — second-channel verification, a family safe word, and payment-method red flags.

$20.9B

reported U.S. internet-crime losses in 2025 (up 26%)

FBI IC3 2025 Report — government data

22,364

complaints with a direct AI connection, ~$893M in losses

FBI IC3 2025 Report

$7.7B

reported losses by adults 60+, up 37%

FBI IC3 2025 Report

Where it reaches constituents

Consumers and especially older adults and their families — the group reporting both the highest losses and the fastest growth. A judgment-based industry forecast projects AI-enabled fraud losses could reach $40 billion by 2027 (a projection, not a measurement).

The current legal & regulatory landscape

The FBI's IC3 provides the national reporting infrastructure; the FTC enforces impersonation rules. North Carolina's Executive Order 24 established a statewide AI Literacy and Fraud Prevention Training Program as state policy.

In North Carolina

The FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report recorded 25,940 complaints from North Carolina — ninth nationally — and $431.6 million in losses, twelfth nationally. Victims aged 60 and older accounted for 5,942 of those complaints and $164.2 million in losses: roughly 23% of the state's complaints and 38% of its losses. North Carolina's telephone solicitation statute, G.S. 75-102, prohibits misrepresenting the origin of a call but contains no provision addressing AI-generated or synthetic voices. House Bill 936, which modernizes robocall consent standards and adds a prohibition on impersonating government officials, has passed both chambers in different forms and went to a conference committee in June 2026. The Department of Justice has an active enforcement program, Operation Robocall Roundup, and issued a consumer alert on AI voice cloning in January 2024. Executive Order 24 directs Commerce, NCDIT, DOJ and DPI to coordinate public AI literacy and fraud-prevention training.

Bill statuses described as of August 19, 2026. Descriptive only — CPAI takes no position on any pending measure.

Considerations policymakers are weighing

  • ·Reporting and data infrastructure so losses can be measured and traced.
  • ·Bank and telecom verification protocols that add friction to high-risk transfers.
  • ·Funding models for prevention education — and evaluation of what prevention actually works, since the canonical protective behaviors have not been rigorously tested.

Listed as live debates, not recommendations. CPAI does not take a position on how these should be resolved.

This brief condenses a full, sourced public guide. The complete evidence and citations:

AI Voice Cloning, Scams & Fraud →

More in Safety & Fraud

Key sources

Government data
FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (2025) — 2025 Internet Crime Report ↗Government data. Reported U.S. internet-crime losses reached $20.9 billion in 2025 (up 26%) across 1,008,597 complaints. The report's first-ever AI section logged 22,364 complaints with a direct AI connection totaling about $893 million; adults 60+ reported roughly $7.7 billion (up 37%).
Government data
FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (2025) — 2025 Internet Crime Report — North Carolina state tables ↗North Carolina recorded 25,940 complaints, ninth nationally, and $431,561,716 in losses, twelfth nationally. Victims aged 60 and older accounted for 5,942 of those complaints and $164,214,173 in losses — roughly 23% of the state's complaints and 38% of its losses. The two percentages are computed from the report's printed figures; the report does not print them.
Government data
Federal Trade Commission (2025) — Protecting Older Consumers report ↗The FTC reported a four-fold increase since 2020 in older adults losing $10,000 or more to impersonation scams — the fraud category most amplified by AI voice cloning and synthetic identities.
Projection / forecast
Deloitte Center for Financial Services (2024) — Generative AI and fraud projection ↗A judgment-based projection that generative-AI-enabled fraud losses in the U.S. could reach $40 billion by 2027. A forecast, not a measurement — always stated as a projection.
Meta-analysis
Diel, Lalgi, Schröter, MacDorman et al. (2024) — Human performance in detecting deepfakes (meta-analysis) ↗Meta-analysis of 56 studies: pooled human accuracy at detecting deepfakes was 55.5% — statistically close to chance. The policy-relevant point, stated neutrally: education promising people can 'spot the fake' is not supported by evidence; process-based verification is the better bet.
Official policy / primary source
NC House Bill 936 (2025-26) — Robocall Solicitation Modifications ↗Modernizes telephone solicitation consent standards and adds a new G.S. 75-104A prohibiting impersonation of government officials. Passed both chambers in different forms and went to a conference committee in June 2026; not enacted as of August 19 2026. North Carolina's existing G.S. 75-102 prohibits misrepresenting the origin of a call but contains no provision addressing AI-generated or synthetic voices.

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The Center for Practical AI is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We provide education, research, and analysis, and we offer briefings and testimony on request. We do not endorse candidates or lobby for or against specific legislation. Everything here describes the evidence and the current landscape — the policy choices are yours.

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