How much audio does it take to clone someone's voice?

As little as 3 seconds of audio — scraped from a social media video, a voicemail greeting, or a public video — is enough for AI tools to produce a voice clone with around 85% accuracy. Fraudsters use these clones to fake a distressed call from a family member.

How do I protect my family against a voice clone call?

Agree a family code word with close relatives — a word only real family members would know, that anyone can ask for during a suspicious call. Hang up and call the person back directly on their known number before sending any money or information.

AI Voice Clone Scam UK: The New "Hi Mum" Call (2026)

What makes this different from the old "Hi Mum" text scam: the original version was typed messages pretending to be from a "new number." The 2026 version adds a cloned voice — as little as 3 seconds of audio, scraped from a social media video or voicemail, is enough for AI tools to reproduce a voice with around 85% accuracy.

How the scam works

Step 1

The audio is scraped

A short clip from a public video, voicemail greeting, or social media post gives the fraudster enough material to clone a voice convincingly.

Step 2

The panicked first call

The cloned voice calls claiming to be in an accident, under arrest, or in some other sudden crisis — deliberately too distressed to "explain properly."

Step 3

The second caller

A follow-up caller poses as a solicitor, police officer or doctor to sound credible, coordinating a payment or asking for personal details "to help."

Step 4

The payment

Victims are pressured to transfer money urgently, often via an unusual method, before there's time to verify anything independently.

How to spot it

Extreme urgency and pressure to act immediately, before you can call anyone else or think it through.
A second, unrelated caller claiming professional authority to arrange payment or extract details.
A request for money via an unusual or untraceable method — gift cards, crypto, or a transfer to an unfamiliar account.

What to do

Set up a family code word now, before you ever need it — a word only real family members know, that anyone can ask for on a suspicious call.
Hang up and call back the person directly on their known number, not a number given to you during the call.
Never send money or personal details based on the call alone, no matter how convincing the voice or how urgent it sounds.
Report it to Action Fraud at actionfraud.police.uk or 0300 123 2040.

Egidio: your automatic phishing detector

Voice cloning targets the phone call itself, which no app can fully verify — but these scams almost always come bundled with a follow-up text or link to "confirm" payment details. Egidio catches that link before it can do anything.

Egidio screens incoming calls and scans links arriving through your messaging apps in real time and blocks fake payment or verification pages the moment they're recognised.

Install Egidio