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5 min Safety Beginner

Set up a family code word against AI voice-clone scam calls

The problem: Scammers can now copy a voice from a few seconds of video and call a parent or grandparent pretending to be you, in a panic, asking for money right now. It sounds real, and that is the point. A family code word that only you know, plus a plan for hanging up and calling back, stops most of these calls cold. AI can help you set it up and explain it in plain words to the people most likely to be targeted.

Do this

  1. Think of who would get a scary call in your family (often a parent or grandparent) and who might be “in trouble” in it. Don’t pick or type your actual code word yet.
  2. Fill in the brackets, paste the prompt, and read the plan and the script it writes.
  3. Choose your real code word privately, then call or visit your family and walk through the plan together. Never send the code word by text or email.

Copy-paste

Help me set up a simple family plan against AI voice-clone scam calls (someone faking a family member's voice to ask for money). Keep it plain and short, for someone who is not good with technology. Who might get these calls: [e.g. "my mom, 72, lives alone, has a landline and a cell phone"] Who might be faked: [e.g. "me, my sister, and my two teenage kids"] How we usually talk: [e.g. "phone calls on Sundays, texts in English"] 1) Explain in 3 or 4 sentences how these scam calls usually work and the warning signs (panic, secrecy, "don't tell Mom", gift cards, wire transfers, crypto, a stranger "lawyer" or "officer"). 2) Give me rules for choosing a good family code word: easy to remember, never posted online, not a pet's name or birthday. Do NOT suggest an actual word. I'll pick it myself. 3) Write a short script for the person getting the call: what to say, to ask for the code word, and to hang up and call back on the number they already have. 4) Write a one-page note I can print for them, in large-print style, with the steps and a space to write the phone numbers of 2 family members to call. 5) Add what to do if they already sent money or gave out information.

Done when: You have a short plan, a script for the moment a call feels wrong, and a printable note, and you’ve chosen your code word in person, not in the chat.

Make it better: Ask “Turn the script into 3 short practice role-plays so I can rehearse this with my mom on the phone” or “Rewrite the note for my grandmother, who speaks [language], in very simple words.” Then actually practice once: the plan only works if they remember it under stress.

Privacy and caveats: Never type your real code word, bank details, or anyone’s full name and address into AI, and never share the code word by text, email, or social media. Change it if you think it leaked. A code word helps, but the real rule is: hang up and call back on a number you already have. Banks, police, and courts never ask for gift cards, wire transfers, or crypto by phone. If someone already sent money, call the bank or payment company right away, then report it (in the U.S., at ReportFraud.ftc.gov; elsewhere, to local police or the national fraud line).

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