AI SCAMS: VOICE CLONING COULD DRAIN YOUR BANK ACCOUNT!
With AI capabilities growing daily, you need to be even more vigilant against potential scammers. We’ve already heard about AI’s power to create written content and, more recently, use musicians’ voices to sing different songs. So, how does this relate to scammers? Well, TikTok users and other online users have shared a new scam that utilizes AI to drain the bank accounts of their family members called voice cloning. Scammers looking to steal thousands of dollars will use AI to replicate the voices of people who’ve posted their voices online via videos like TikTok. They’ll clone a person’s voice and then use it to call their relatives and
pretend to be their children or grandchildren who need money as soon as possible. The person on the phone is a scammer, not your family member, even though they sound just like them. Never send money without first verifying whether it is or isn’t your relative. Some online users advise creating secret code words to exchange over the phone to confirm their family member is requesting the money. Always contact your relative and ask if they actually made the call. Remember, anyone who has posted a short clip of their voice can find it cloned with AI and used to scam their families. Stay safe!
THE VERDICT IS IN: Aretha Franklin’s ‘Couch Cushion Will’ Won in Court!
The drama played out for four full years. At one point, Kecalf even accused the person elected to run his mother’s estate of mismanagement, leading her to resign from her position. Finally, the battle came to an end this summer. On July 11, a jury in Michigan decided that Franklin’s now-famous “couch cushion will” represents her “true wishes.” (Fun fact: Handwritten wills are also considered valid here in Virginia. They just have to be entirely in the relevant person’s handwriting, signed by that person, and confirmed by two witnesses.) With this verdict, $8 million of the Queen of Soul’s estate will likely go to the IRS, and three of her sons will split the rest of her assets. Kecalf will receive the lion’s share (including his mom’s $1.1 million home and fancy cars). He, Edward, and Theodore will support their brother Clarence, who has a mental illness.
When superstar singer Aretha Franklin passed away in 2018, she left behind not one, not two, but four different wills! You’d think that would be enough to explain her wishes, but there was a problem: They contradicted each other. Franklin only created one of the wills with help from a lawyer — and it was an unsigned draft. The other three were handwritten pages hidden around Franklin’s home. Her heirs found one (created in 2010) locked away safely in a cabinet and another (dating from 2014) tucked between the cushions of Franklin’s couch! Each will called for a different distribution of Franklin’s $18 million estate among her four sons (Clarence, Edward, Kecalf, and Theodore), so their discovery kicked off a yearslong probate battle. Not only did the brothers vie for their preferred wills, but the IRS also claimed a piece of Franklin’s estate.
Aretha Franklin’s probate case was unusual, but ordinary families end up in estate disputes all of the time. If you ever need to contest a will or root out trustee or executor misconduct like Kecalf did in this case, call our firm at (804) 823-2011 . We’re experts at resolving these issues and helping families move on.
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