WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) in partnership with students from UCLA Law School’s Information Policy Lab, a project of the UCLA Institute for Technology, Law & Policy, filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and Attorneys General of the United States alleging that Speechify, an artificial intelligence voice-cloning platform, engages in unfair, deceptive, and abusive trade practices by making it remarkably easy for bad actors to create convincing voice impersonations with virtually no meaningful safeguards to prevent fraud. The complaint argues that Speechify's practices violate Section 5(a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act as well as analogous state UDAP laws and digital forgery statutes.

Impersonation scams are among the fastest-growing forms of consumer fraud in the United States. According to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers reported losing $3.5 billion to impersonation scams in 2025, nearly three times the amount reported in 2020. Older Americans have been hit especially hard, losing $445 million to impersonation scams in 2024 alone, an eightfold increase over four years. CFA's complaint alleges that Speechify's voice-cloning technology enables these scams by allowing users to create realistic voice clones from just seconds of audio while relying on little more than a self-attestation checkbox to verify consent.

"Speechify has made it remarkably easy for anyone to clone a person's voice while doing almost nothing to verify consent or prevent abuse," said Ben Winters, Director of AI and Data Privacy. "At a time when Americans are losing billions of dollars to impersonation scams, companies cannot continue releasing powerful AI tools without meaningful safeguards and then claim no responsibility when those tools are used to defraud consumers. We believe Speechify's practices warrant investigation, and we urge federal and state regulators to hold the company accountable for failing to take reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable harm."

CFA's complaint asks federal and state regulators to investigate Speechify's practices and pursue appropriate enforcement action. The organization also encourages consumers who are concerned about AI-enabled impersonation scams to contact their state Attorneys General and urge them to hold companies accountable when they fail to implement reasonable safeguards against fraud.