Picture this: Your phone rings. It’s your kid’s voice, terrified and begging for help. You’d do anything, right?
Only it’s not them calling. It’s an AI voice scam.
That’s the mission behind LifeLock’s new show, The Control Room. Hosted by former DIA case officer Shawnee Delaney and Tier One operator Tyler Grey, with researcher Renée DiResta, the series helps Americans understand the scams and digital threats they might not see coming.
Together, they pull back the curtain on how scammers are turning artificial intelligence into artificial trust.
The calm before the panic
Renée’s resume reads like a spy novel: CIA internship, quant trading, startup founder, now research director at Stanford’s Internet Observatory.
Translation: she’s seen how information gets weaponized.
Her warning lands hard. AI is opening a whole new world for scammers. You don’t need a hacker’s toolkit, just a few public clips and a free model online.
“It’s not just celebrities anymore,” she says. “Ordinary people are getting caught up in this stuff.”
The hosts keep it simple, helping you see exactly how these scams work and what to do if they target you.
The AI voice scams you actually need to worry about
Modern scammers don’t look suspicious. They sound familiar.
- Voice-cloning kidnaps: Criminals scrape social media, clone a loved one’s voice, and spin up an emergency call.
- The “yes” trap: A robocall tricks you into saying “yes,” recording your voice to bypass verification.
- Deepfake Zooms: In Hong Kong, a finance worker joined a video call that looked completely normal, except every “executive” on screen was an AI deepfake. The scam ended with a $25 million (!!!) transfer to the wrong account.
“The small things stack up to become the catastrophic things.”
The psychology behind the panic
These scams don’t need perfect tech. They just need good timing. Fear, urgency, and love are the hacker’s favorite buttons.
Shawnee calls them amber flags. Those small overshares: birthdays, schools, and nicknames are breadcrumbs for con artists.
Emotional manipulation is the real malware: it makes you react before you verify.
AI used to need a supercomputer. Now it just needs your TikTok.
When reality becomes editable
Tyler knows firsthand. He’s watched his own face show up in a fake romance scam video. It looked like him, moved like him, and fooled people who knew him.
Renée explains why. Modern diffusion models can mimic almost anyone with eerie precision, while detection tools are always one step behind.
Healthy skepticism isn’t paranoia anymore. It’s digital hygiene.
When kids become targets
Here’s the part every parent hates hearing: it’s not just financial scams.
“Nudify” apps can generate fake explicit photos of teens from regular images. Then comes sextortion, with threats to share the images unless victims pay or send more.
Renée warns that sextortion is spreading fast and urges parents to start the conversation early.
Shawnee’s fix is old-school AND genius: teach your kids a family password for emergencies.
“It sounds insane,” she says, “until it saves you money and panic.”
So… what can you actually do?
Here’s what the Control Room Hosts recommend:
- Opt out of voice authentication wherever possible.
- Use a family password before sending money or information.
- Lock down social profiles and skip posting raw audio or video of kids.
- Teach “verify before you act.” A quick text or FaceTime can expose a scam.
- Report fake accounts to platforms and local law enforcement.
In today’s world, awareness is armor.
The bigger picture: policy, tech, and hope
Renée notes that governments are catching up. Laws like the Take It Down Act and bipartisan privacy pushes are small victories.
But policy moves slower than crime.
The faster fix is staying informed, and that’s precisely what The Control Room delivers.
Each episode gives you real-world tactics to outsmart the evolving playbook of fraud.
Tech keeps evolving, but so can your defenses.
AI is rewriting what we can trust. Knowledge, vigilance, and the right tools keep you one step ahead.
“Have a healthy skepticism of almost anything digital.”
Watch the full episode to see how the experts dissect every layer of AI deception and how you can protect your reality before someone edits it.
📺 Watch the full episode on LifeLock’s YouTube
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