My parents received a phone call, and it was my nephew's voice; I think someone had recorded his phone conversation; then used it to create a new conversation with canned lines, like "I'm in jail, I need bail money" kind of thing. My father was buying prepaid money transfer cards, and the guy at the register was telling him "the only reason people buy these is they have been scammed". He still sent these people $1500 thinking it would be their grandchild out of jail; and they didn't even try to call him on his cell phone first, or his father!
Of course, he had not been arrested, was not in another state being held in jail, none of it.
Crazy era we live in; my folks could never imagine that canned recorded phone conversation could be sampled and turned into a scam like that..
Wow - that's pretty creepy and sad.. It actually sounds like part of a plotline from a movie!
I know from experience that it can be almost impossible to track down criminals who do things like that. It is possible to hack landlines and create fake phone numbers, so that even the police can't track you - or at least thats what the government agency I spoke with told me.. although even that sounds suspect!