# How to Protect Your Family From AI Voice Scams Pastor Adam Mesa and his co-hosts share two true scam stories, one involving a cloned voice, and one simple step every family can take before a frightening call comes. Source: Pray.com — https://www.pray.com/articles/how-to-protect-your-family-from-ai-voice-scams Author: Adam Mesa Category: Faith & Wisdom Published: 2026-10-22 Last revised: 2026-10-22 --- ## Key takeaways - **Voices can be copied.** The hosts warned that AI can imitate a child's voice, and they described a scam call that did exactly that. - **Agree on a safe word.** A word your family settles on ahead of time lets you check whether a frightening call is real. - **Older adults are targets.** The hosts expect scammers to go after grandparents, so they urged families to talk with them. - **Loneliness can be used against people.** One man in his sixties was drawn in by an AI companion and a fake check. - **Stay informed.** The hosts want believers to know what the technology can do without being naive or afraid of it. ## A phone call in a daughter's voice Pastor Adam Mesa and his co-hosts, including Pastor Sammy, came back to Beyond the Letter after two months away. Along with news about the show, they spent a good part of the conversation on a warning. One host said parents should not put too much content of their children on social media, and added, "AI is stealing their voice." He backed it up with something that happened to a close friend. Scammers called the friend's mother and said they had her daughter. Then they put the daughter on the line. They had used her voice, and she was saying things in Spanish, including "Hi, mommy." The host said the threats that followed were vulgar. The caller told the mother to meet them at a gas station and warned that if she called her daughter, they would kill her immediately. She was home alone, and her husband was at work. The scammers told her they knew she was alone and what she looked like, details the host said can be pulled from social media images. They took four to five thousand dollars, money her family had only just been paid. The mother went to the police, who told her she had sent it of her own volition, and the bank did not help either. The host said it was horrible to hear the story from someone so close to him. ## Why a family safe word matters The hosts kept returning to one practical step. "Have a family safety word," one of them said. If someone calls claiming to hold a loved one, the family already knows the word that proves it is real. They tossed out examples such as "pineapples" or "white Honda," and joked about writing the word on paper instead of saying it near a phone. The jokes had a serious point behind them. Describing what a real call would feel like, one host said, "You get a call from someone you love and they're saying these people are going to kill me." A panicking parent does not stop to ask whether the voice is fake. As he put it, "You're not thinking of like, I wonder if this is AI." So the conversation has to happen before the call does. They also said to include grandparents. One host expects that scammers will go after senior citizens hard, so the family should tell grandma and grandpa what to listen for and what word to ask for. ## A fake romance and a fake check Another story came from a pastor's own community: a man in his sixties, lonely and divorced, with grown children. He believed he had found a girlfriend online. They had FaceTime calls and phone calls, but she turned out to be an AI program. She asked him to cash a check and send the money to her by MoneyGram. The owner of a corner liquor store, who had known him for thirty or forty years, handled the transaction, but did not cash the check right away, because he trusted him. It was a fake. When a second check arrived and the man could not use it, the store owner showed up at his door. The bank confirmed the check was fraudulent. The store owner wanted his money back, roughly five thousand dollars, and the man, already living on Social Security, did not have it. The host said the owner threatened to break his legs. The man came to the pastor in tears. The host said he told him that police were unlikely to help with a cybercrime where he had acted himself, and that he still needed to make it right with the store owner. He believes the man eventually paid it back. The takeaway the hosts gave was blunt and a little funny: don't cash other people's checks, for anyone. They also noted that when a threat is still unfolding, going to the police first gives them the best chance to act, before any money has moved. ## Awareness without panic The hosts did not tell anyone to throw out their devices. They pointed out that things people now use daily were once called evil, and that technology has changed life before, as the internet did. They also described how fake endorsements are appearing, with influencers and celebrities seeming to promote products they never touched, using dubbed voices. They carried the worry further. One host imagined a government rewriting its country's history with fake video, so that young people grow up seeing footage of events that never happened. Another asked, "what even real video?" The hosts expect that tools to check whether media is real will become necessary. Their conclusion was to learn the tools, not avoid them. One host said, "I refuse to just be naive," and another added, "Don't get played by it." ## Using the tools with eyes open The hosts do use AI themselves. Adam Mesa said he talked through the show's redesign with an AI assistant, and the team upgraded cameras and software so guests can join from anywhere while the conversation still feels like a table talk. They also discussed whether AI-made music and film is fair to working creatives. One host said, "I'm kind of Switzerland on this," meaning he sees both arguments and thinks the conversation needs to happen. On jobs, a host argued that new technology tends to open new paths, and that "If you're an expert in your field, you're not going to be replaced because you're also going to learn how to adapt." Others worried that design work and similar jobs will shrink in the next year. They did not claim to have settled it. ## What this means for you You do not need to understand how voice cloning works to protect the people you love. You need a conversation at your dinner table. Choose a word, make sure every family member knows it, and ask for it the moment a call turns frightening. Then think about the people who are easiest to reach. Call your parents or grandparents and tell them these stories. Ask your children what they are posting. If someone close to you is lonely, notice who is offering them attention online and what they are being asked to do. If you ever receive a call like the one the hosts described, they suggested going to the police before sending anything. A few minutes of questions can matter more than a quick wire transfer.