You may have heard about election interference scams that use AI to recreate a candidate's voice to spread disinformation about voting—but that same artificial intelligence is being used to create panic in family members over the phone.

Scammers impersonating Jay Shooster called his dad Frank, convincing him that his son had been in a serious car accident, was arrested, and needed bail money.

Even though he's an educated retired attorney, the terrified 70-year-old had no idea it was not his son.

"I got a phone call and it was my son, Jay. He was hysterical, but I knew his voice immediately.

"He said he had been in an accident, broke his nose, had 16 stitches, and was in police custody because he tested positive for alcohol after a breathalyzer, blaming it on the cough syrup he had taken earlier."

His 34-year-old son, who is campaigning for Congress in Florida's 91st District in Boca Raton, believes the scammers managed to create the fake voice from his 15-second TV campaign ad.

On September 28, the impersonator pleaded with Frank not to tell anyone about the situation. Moments later, another man identifying himself as attorney 'Mike Rivers', said Jay needed a $35,000 cash bond to avoid being held in jail for several days.

The scam escalated when 'Rivers' instructed Frank to pay the bond via a cryptocurrency machine—an unconventional request that heightened Frank's suspicions.

"I became suspicious when he told me to go to a Coinbase machine at Winn-Dixie," Frank says. "I didn't understand how that was part of the legal process."