{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0723","record_version":1,"title":"Homebuyers lose $66,000 in suspected voice-cloning scam","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":54.3,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":15.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":0.0,"completeness":5.44,"unhedged_language":5.0},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true,"record_integrity":true,"eligible":true,"about_this_case":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-10-18.7","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-11-01","extraction_run_id":null,"evidence_level":{"level":"preliminary","reason":"1 report: CNN · subject to change","original_document":null,"reports_total":2,"reports_independent":1,"reports_derivative":1,"developing":false,"disputed":false,"rules_version":"evidence-2026-10-29.1","computed_at":"2026-11-01","history":[{"date":"2026-11-01","from_level":null,"to_level":"preliminary","reason":"1 report: CNN · subject to change"}]},"sources_hash":"36929602f0b558f8c972090e8e61bfd0b9e7e77872ab9591ce0744469e416ab7"},"system":{"model_name":null,"model_version":null,"developer":"unknown","harness":null,"tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":null,"autonomy_level":"unknown","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"unknown","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":null,"intended_use":null,"safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":null,"date_disclosed":"2026-09-15","incident_class":"other","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":null,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"victim","summary":"A Michigan couple buying a condo received an email that appeared to come from their mortgage process, asking them to wire $66,026.92 within 24 hours to keep closing on schedule. A phone call to confirm the instructions sounded like their loan officer, and they sent the money. On the day before closing, a statement from their real loan officer led them to realize they had been scammed. The scam is suspected to involve AI voice cloning and spoofed contact details. The closing was canceled, the couple reported the matter to the FBI, and an investigation is ongoing. They later completed the purchase using money from a mutual fund.","tags":[],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":"Suspected, not confirmed by the sources: the email of someone in the home-buying process may have been compromised.","failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":"third_party","adversarial_actor":"external_attacker","input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":"Scammers likely took snippets of the loan officer's voice from social media posts, per Adams's account.","primary_risk":"RK19","secondary_risks":["RK07"],"control_chain":[{"layer":"L2","party":"harness_vendor","party_name":null,"control_id":"B2","outcome":"got_around","reason":null,"quote":"Brian VanDoeselaar received a call to confirm the instructions, and the voice on the phone sounded just like their loan officer.","source_index":0,"reviewed":false}]},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"minor","severity_because":"Test: minor, contained to one deployer or one evaluation, routine cleanup, no third party touched. Fact: the loss is stated for one couple; no other affected party is counted by the sources. Judgement: the receiving bank account is a third-party account, so this tier is uncertain.","harm_class":["financial"],"affected_description":null,"protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":"unknown","downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/15/us/homebuyers-voice-cloning-scam","publisher":"CNN","date":"2026-09-15","type":"press","title":"‘We both missed the signs:’ How two homebuyers lost $66,000 in a suspected voice-cloning scam - CNN","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report","independence":"independent"},{"url":"https://www.aol.com/articles/heard-sounded-mortgage-professionals-voice-161326000.html","publisher":"AOL.com","date":"2026-09-15","type":"press","title":"They Heard What Sounded Like Their Mortgage Professional's Voice. Then $66,000 in Closing Funds Went to a Scammer - AOL.com","archived_url":null,"independence":"derivative"}],"per_field_confidence":{"event.detection_method":"C","event.root_cause_detail":"C","event.responsible_party":"C","event.adversarial_actor":"C","event.precursor_events":"C","impact.harm_class":"C","impact.reversibility":"C","context.industry":"C","context.country":"C","event.incident_class":"D","impact.severity":"D","impact.severity_because":"D","event.primary_risk":"D","event.secondary_risks":"D","event.control_chain":"C","event.summary":"C","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","event.trigger":"D","system.developer":"D","event.date_disclosed":"D","context.denominator_available":"D"},"field_citations":{"event.detection_method":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"But on the day before closing, when their real loan officer sent them a statement for the down payment and closing costs they owed, their excitement turned to panic."}],"event.root_cause_detail":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Adams said he believes the email of someone involved in the VanDoeselaars’ home-buying process was compromised."}],"event.responsible_party":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"Instead, the money went to criminals in a real estate wire fraud scheme that fraud prevention company CertifID says involved AI voice cloning and spoofed communications."}],"event.adversarial_actor":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"Instead, the money went to criminals in a real estate wire fraud scheme that fraud prevention company CertifID says involved AI voice cloning and spoofed communications."}],"event.precursor_events":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"In this case, the scammers likely took snippets of the loan officer’s voice from his social media posts and cloned it, Adams said."}],"impact.harm_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"By the time they realized they’d been scammed, their money was gone."}],"impact.reversibility":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Adams said his company is working with the VanDoeselaars and federal officials to try and recover their money."}],"context.industry":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Real estate is especially vulnerable to scams because it involves big money, rushed decisions and multiple people navigating tight deadlines, Adams said."}],"context.country":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Brian and Wendy VanDoeselaar were in the final stages of buying their dream condo near Grand Rapids, Michigan, and everything seemed in place."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"Instead, the money went to criminals in a real estate wire fraud scheme that fraud prevention company CertifID says involved AI voice cloning and spoofed communications."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The couple wired the money."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The couple wired the money."}],"event.control_chain":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Brian VanDoeselaar received a call to confirm the instructions, and the voice on the phone sounded just like their loan officer."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"To keep the closing on schedule, it said, the couple needed to wire $66,026.92 to a specified bank account within 24 hours to cover a down payment and closing costs."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Brian VanDoeselaar received a call to confirm the instructions, and the voice on the phone sounded just like their loan officer."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The couple wired the money."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"But on the day before closing, when their real loan officer sent them a statement for the down payment and closing costs they owed, their excitement turned to panic."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The closing was canceled hours before the couple was scheduled to sign the final paperwork."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The couple has filed a report with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, the agency’s hub for online-enabled crimes, and an investigation is ongoing."}]},"notes_on_gaps":"No AI agent is described; the voice cloning tool and any model are unnamed, so no system fields are given and event.failure_class is omitted. Incident class 'other' and responsible party 'third_party' are judgements; the sources describe a human-run fraud using suspected AI tools. The year 2026 for May 19 is inferred from the article date and 'this year'. The date detected is omitted because CNN says the couple learned of the scam on the day before closing while AOL says the title company revealed it on closing morning. The date disclosed is omitted because no body sentence states it, only the article date. The loss uses the amount the couple was told to wire; the sources say they wired the money but do not confirm the exact sum sent. The root cause is unknown: a compromised email is only suspected by Adams. The severity tier is a judgement. Reversibility is unknown because recovery efforts are ongoing. No third-party count, records exposed, duration, or containment time is stated. [case created by the backfill: read by claude-haiku-5-5, backfill-2026-11-01.2, 2026-11-01; not yet reviewed] [2026-11-01: evidence level set: Preliminary (1 report: CNN · subject to change)]"},"context":{"industry":"real estate","org_size_band":null,"country":"US","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":null,"coverage":null},"narrative":{"steps":[{"step":"doing","text":"A couple was closing on a condo purchase near Grand Rapids, Michigan.","quote":"Brian and Wendy VanDoeselaar were in the final stages of buying their dream condo near Grand Rapids, Michigan, and everything seemed in place.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"caught","text":"A statement from their real loan officer, sent the day before closing, led them to the scam.","quote":"But on the day before closing, when their real loan officer sent them a statement for the down payment and closing costs they owed, their excitement turned to panic.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"}],"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/15/us/homebuyers-voice-cloning-scam","https://www.aol.com/articles/heard-sounded-mortgage-professionals-voice-161326000.html"]},"analysis":{"sections":{"timeline":[{"text":"Closing day was set for May 28.","quote":"Their real loan officer had told them they had until May 28 – closing day – to come up with roughly $68,000 for the down payment and closing costs.","source_index":0,"when":"May 28"},{"text":"The couple received the fraudulent wiring email.","quote":"But on May 19 this year, days before closing, they got a startling email.","source_index":0,"when":"May 19 this year"},{"text":"Brian received a confirmation call that sounded like the loan officer.","quote":"Brian VanDoeselaar received a call to confirm the instructions, and the voice on the phone sounded just like their loan officer.","source_index":0,"when":null},{"text":"The couple wired the funds.","quote":"The couple wired the money.","source_index":0,"when":null},{"text":"A real statement from the loan officer led the couple to realize the scam.","quote":"But on the day before closing, when their real loan officer sent them a statement for the down payment and closing costs they owed, their excitement turned to panic.","source_index":0,"when":"day before closing"},{"text":"The closing was canceled.","quote":"The closing was canceled hours before the couple was scheduled to sign the final paperwork.","source_index":0,"when":null},{"text":"The couple filed a report with the FBI's IC3; the investigation is ongoing.","quote":"The couple has filed a report with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, the agency’s hub for online-enabled crimes, and an investigation is ongoing.","source_index":0,"when":null},{"text":"The couple got money from a mutual fund and completed the purchase.","quote":"They eventually got money from their mutual fund and completed the home purchase in early June.","source_index":0,"when":"early June"}]},"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/15/us/homebuyers-voice-cloning-scam","https://www.aol.com/articles/heard-sounded-mortgage-professionals-voice-161326000.html"]}}