Hello, friend — hope your week is treating you well so far.
In today's issue: a mother who nearly lost $5,400 to an AI voice-cloning scam (and the one simple habit that would have stopped it), one thing to do before you trust a chatbot's health answer, and a free AI tool that can hand you back a real spreadsheet or flyer instead of just advice.
Let's get started.
SAFETY
A Mother Wired $5,400 to Free Her “Kidnapped” Daughter. The Voice on the Phone Was Fake.
In May, a California mother named Deborah Del Mastro got a call from a number she didn't recognize. The caller said her 37-year-old daughter had been kidnapped by a drug cartel — and then she heard her daughter's voice, crying and begging for help. For the next five hours, she followed the caller's instructions, wiring a total of $5,400 to Mexico from several different locations.
When she finally called her daughter directly, she learned her daughter had been safe at work the entire time. The crying voice on the phone wasn't her daughter at all — it was an AI-generated copy of her voice.
This works because cloning a voice no longer takes any special skill. Researchers at the security company McAfee found that just three seconds of someone talking — a video posted online, a voicemail greeting, even a TikTok — can be enough for AI tools to generate a copy that sounds about 85% like the real thing. A national survey by Gallup and the Stop Scams Alliance estimated about 15 million American adults were scammed this way in 2025 alone, and it hits people of every age about equally.
Takeaway: Agree on a simple code word with your close family now, before you ever get a call like this. If anyone calls claiming a loved one is in danger, hang up and call that person directly on a number you already have saved — don't trust the voice on the phone, no matter how real it sounds.
— Fortune
STAYING SAFE
Before You Trust a Chatbot's Health Answer, Do This One Thing
A lot of people now ask AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude about health questions — a medication side effect, a worrying symptom, or something a doctor said that didn't quite make sense. That's understandable: answers come back fast, in plain language, and it can feel less awkward than asking a person.
But new research says it's worth slowing down before acting on what it tells you. One researcher found that about 4 out of 5 people who asked a chatbot a health question never checked whether the answer was actually correct. Part of the problem is a chatbot's tendency to give you an answer that sounds agreeable, which isn't the same thing as an answer that's accurate — if your question hints at what you're hoping to hear, some chatbots will lean toward telling you that.
A few simple habits help: ask neutral questions (“what are the side effects of this medication?” rather than “is it safe for me to stop taking this?”), check any source links the chatbot gives you to see if they point to a real medical source, and use the thumbs-down button if an answer seems off.
Takeaway: It's fine to use an AI chatbot to help you understand a diagnosis or get ready for a doctor's appointment — but treat its answer as a starting point to bring up with your actual doctor or pharmacist, never as a replacement for them, especially before changing a medication or a health routine.
TRY THIS
A Free AI Chatbot Can Hand You Back an Actual File — Not Just Advice
AI chatbots used to just give you text on a screen — useful, but you still had to turn that text into something real yourself, like a spreadsheet or a printed page. That's changed. Claude, a free AI chatbot made by a company called Anthropic, can now build the actual file for you, right in the same conversation, at no cost.
Here's what that looks like in practice: describe a budget in plain English, and Claude hands back a real spreadsheet with the math already filled in. Ask it to collect your family's favorite recipes into one document you can print and put in a binder, or put together a simple one-page flyer for a church potluck or a neighborhood yard sale.
To try it, go to claude.ai in any web browser, or download the free “Claude” app on your phone. You'll need a free account with an email address, and then you can simply type what you want in your own words.
Takeaway: Next time you need more than just an answer — a spreadsheet, a flyer, a printable list — try describing it in plain English to a free AI chatbot like Claude and see what it hands back.
Until tomorrow,
EZ AI