Oregon woman hears an unknown man through her sister’s phone call. She thought her sister was in trouble, then she discovered a new type of scam

Content creator Selah Molden (@selahmolden) was distressed after a strange call from her sister. After confirming with her family, she realized she had narrowly avoided a new type of scam.

“I have to share this freaking experience I just had, because I’m literally, like, on the verge of tears,” Molden told social media. She said she got a scam call from an unknown caller. Molden claimed the caller ID showed her sister’s name and number. The caller ID even showed a childhood photo, which is her sister’s contact photo in Molden’s phone.

She answered instinctively, believing the caller was her sister. But when she picked up, Molden said a man’s voice was on the other end of the line. At the time, she thought it was her sister’s boyfriend, Darius. However, Molden noticed that the man’s voice didn’t resemble Darius’ voice either. The stranger kept saying ‘hello’ over the phone.

“My first thought immediately goes to somebody, like, a man has my sister’s phone. So, like, what the f***? Is she in danger?” When Molden replied to the ‘hello,’ the voice repeated the greeting. Molden said she also heard the man’s heavy breathing. Molden was frightened and described the experience as something out of a scary movie.

She was alarmed by the call, and because she is an online personality, Molden was familiar with stalking. Similarly, a content creator was stalked online by her NYC date before they met in real life. Instinctively, Molden’s found the call from the man strange. In response, she clicked the ‘call recording’ feature on her phone. Molden believed that if it were really her sister or her sister’s boyfriend on the other end, they wouldn’t mind having the call recorded.

The scam caller was allegedly deterred

When Molden pressed the ‘call recording’ feature, it announced that the call was now being recorded. Molden wasn’t aware it would automatically announce that recording was in progress, and then the mysterious caller suddenly hung up on her. After the distressing call, Molden contacted her mother and told her that a man had her sister’s phone and that she believed her sister was being hacked.

“And lo and behold, it’s fine, my sister’s all safe and alright,” Molden said. She looked at her call history, and she said she received two calls from her sister’s phone number. When she asked her sister about the calls, her sister denied calling her at 7:00 a.m.

Molden raised the possibility of spoofing, a type of scam in which a hacker obtains a target’s contact information and contact list, then contacts the target using a number from that list. This way, the target answers the call.

“Luckily, like, no conversation was had, and I tried to record the call, and they just hung up on me,” Molden said. Nevertheless, Molden expressed her concern about the rise of AI and deepfakes and the possibility of similar incidents happening. She has set up precautions against these but didn’t elaborate.

She advised, “If this has happened to you, do not answer. They don’t have your sister. They don’t have your mom. It’s all a ruse, and they’re just trying to get your information.” But scams don’t only happen to famous content creators and celebrities. Some scams happen on dating apps, and fake profiles can bypass facial verification systems using AI-modified photos.

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