Overview

• Fraudsters used AI to clone April Monroe’s voice and convinced her mother, Sharon Brightwell, to hand over $15,000 purportedly for bail after a staged crash.
• The scammers escalated demands by claiming a pregnant victim had died and sought an additional $30,000 to avoid a lawsuit before family members uncovered the hoax.
• The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office confirms detectives are actively investigating the case as part of a rise in AI-enabled extortion schemes.
• Monroe’s GoFundMe remains open to help the family recover financially and to raise public awareness of sophisticated voice-cloning scams.
• Authorities recommend setting prearranged safe words and using direct callbacks to trusted contacts to guard against deepfake imposters.