A Cuban resident abroad nearly lost $1,600 in an attempt to scam her involving solar panels intended for her mother in Cuba, in a scheme that included voice cloning using artificial intelligence to deceive her sister and compel payment.
The complaint was made public by Juanly, a TikTok user with the profile @juanly20, who detailed how the fraud took place. Her mother, in Cuba, was looking for solar panels through Facebook and WhatsApp groups, since they are more affordable on the island than purchasing them abroad and importing them.
A supposed seller contacted the mother, asked for her address, and indicated that payment needed to be made from abroad before delivery, claiming that the delivery persons were already on their way from Havana.
While keeping the mother on the line under the pretext that they were "lost" in Camilo Park and needed directions, the scammers executed the most sophisticated part of the plan: they sent a voice message from the sister, using a WhatsApp number with the mother's profile picture, saying that the panels had already arrived and that she should proceed with the payment.
"It was an audio from my mom with the same WhatsApp photo of my mom [...] it was my mom's voice, I imagine that this audio was generated with AI," explained Juanly, referring to a voice cloning tool using AI.
The trap fell apart due to one detail: the mother and sister were talking on the phone at the same time, making it impossible for the mother to have sent that audio. "Did you send me an audio?" the sister asked. The mother's response was immediate: "How could I send you an audio if I'm talking to you?"
Realizing that they had been discovered, the scammers blocked both women, deleted the mother’s profile picture from the WhatsApp number, and hung up the phone.
Juanly pointed out that the scam could have worked on anyone else: "Anyone who knows my mom and hears that audio would believe that the guy with the panels has arrived; these scammers are up-to-date."
This case is not isolated. Since June 2026, there has been a documented escalation in the sophistication of solar panel scams in Cuba, ranging from simple fraud of non-delivery to the use of AI to generate false images of installations that have already taken place or hacking WhatsApp accounts to cut off communication with victims during the scam.
A Cuban identified as Claudia Y. lost $6,000 in a similar scam that combined WhatsApp hacking with AI-generated voice and image. On July 4, Leydi Mariam Varela, a resident of San Antonio de los Baños, reported losing 75,000 Cuban pesos in the purchase of an electric battery that never arrived.
The context fueling these scams is the severe energy crisis in Cuba, where blackouts can exceed 20 hours a day in some provinces, leading to a surge in demand for solar panels and creating a fertile informal market for criminals. According to experts in digital forensic analysis, it takes only between 15 and 20 seconds of audio from a person to clone their voice using publicly available AI tools on the internet.
Cuban authorities have not taken effective measures against this wave of technological fraud, and victims report a lack of police response to their complaints.
"Very sad that you sacrifice yourself to help your family and things like this happen to you," Juanly concluded his story, urging to be "very careful with what you see on Facebook, with what you see on Marketplace, with people you don't know."
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