Sharon Brightwell: Mother cruelly tricked by AI scammer who used her own daughter's voice to steal from her

Perth Now

21-07-2025

Sharon Brightwell fell victim to a scammer after they used her own daughter's voice to convince her she was in trouble.
Sharon Brightwell fell victim to a scammer after they used her own daughter's voice to convince her she was in trouble. Credit: Sharon Brightwell / Facebook
A mother has fallen victim to a heartless scam after callers used AI to pose as her daughter.
When Sharon Brightwell picked up the phone on July 9 she heard her own daughter tearfully tell her she had been in a car accident.
'There is nobody that could convince me that it wasn't her,' Sharon said. 'I know my daughter's cry,' she told WFLA.
She listened to the caller tell her that she had hit a pregnant woman while texting and driving, and said her phone was confiscated by police.
Then the Florida woman heard a male voice who told her he was the lawyer that would represent her daughter.
He said the daughter was in custody and needed $23,000 to post bail.
Ms Brightwell said the man gave very detailed instructions, and warned her 'not to tell the bank what the money was for' because it would affect her daughter's credit score.
In a state of shock she followed the instructions, withdrew the money and placed it in a box as the man had requested.
Then a driver showed up to her house and collected the package.
This was not the end, and Ms Brightwell received another call telling her the unborn child had died in the womb as a result of the accident, and that the family would not sue if they were paid $46,000.
This is when Ms Brightwell's grandson intervened.
He arranged a phone call with Ms Brightwell's real daughter on the other line.
When Ms Brightwell heard her daughter's voice she 'screamed' and 'broke down'.
Her daughter had been fine the whole time.
The family suspects the scammers used videos from the daughter's social media to accurately replicate her voice in a cruel and emotionally manipulative scam.
They have reported the matter to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and urge other families to take precautions against this sophisticated high-tech scam.
Ms Brightwell's daughter has launched a GoFundMe page to cover the cost of the $23,000.
On the page, she wrote, that the AI cloned voice sounded 'exactly like her'.
'After you hear your child in distress, all logic is out the window. Nothing would have convinced her that wasn't me.'