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AI has the potential to make our lives a lot easier, allowing us to multi-task and save time. But its sophistication can also be used against us — by other people.

In an increasingly widespread scam, bad actors are cloning voices of people’s loved ones with AI; they call their victims on the phone and use the voice to ask for money under false pretenses, NBC Nightly News .

Related: 4 Tips to Spot a Remote Work Job Scam, According to an Expert

One father interviewed by the outlet revealed that he got a call he thought was from his daughter, saying she’d been kidnapped and was being held for ransom. He was so convinced he grabbed cash and drove to a meetup location before his wife called his actual daughter — and discovered it was a scam.

Last year, reported fraud losses increased 30% year over year to nearly $8.8 billion, and there were more than 36,000 reports of people being scammed by those pretending to be friends and family, according to data from the .

Perpetrators of phone scams can pull voice snippets from social media — then use them to wreak havoc.

AI voice-generating software can decipher what makes a person’s voice distinct — including age, gender and accent — then sift through an enormous database of voices to locate similar ones and find patterns, Hany Farid, a professor of digital forensics at the University of California at Berkeley, told .

Related: Retired Teacher Loses $200k in Wire Fraud Email Scam

The

is urging people to watch out for calls using voice clones; if a call from a loved one seems suspicious, hang up and call the person yourself to verify the claim.