As AI-driven impersonation scams surge, experts advocate for family code phrases and low-tech safeguards to prevent financial losses and protect loved ones from sophisticated frauds.
Marilyn Crawford’s ordeal began with a late-night call that sounded painfully real: a supposed police officer, then a voice claiming to be her grandson, saying he had been arrested and needed $9,000 to get out of jail. She was persuaded to take a taxi arranged by the callers and go to her bank in Ontario to wire the money, but an alert employee stepped in and stopped the transfer. Crawford’s family now suspects the voice on the line was an AI clone built from audio scraped online.
That kind of scam is spreading fast because it exploits two weaknesses at once: access to public audio and the instinct to help a loved one in trouble. McAfee says its researchers were able to create a convincing voice clone from just three seconds of sample audio, while investigators and security firms say scammers often pull that material from birthday videos, voicemail greetings, podcasts or social media clips. The result is a call that can sound authentic enough to override common sense. Experts told CBS News that the tactic is designed to trigger panic, not careful thinking.
The scale of the problem is now visible in official fraud data. The Federal Trade Commission said imposter scams were the most reported fraud category in 2025, with losses of $3.5 billion, almost triple the amount reported in 2020. The agency also found that reports from older adults who lost $10,000 or more to impersonation scams have more than quadrupled since 2020, while losses above $100,000 surged to $445 million in 2024 from $55 million four years earlier. The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report added a first look at AI-specific complaints, logging 22,364 cases and nearly $893 million in losses.
Banks and law enforcement can sometimes interrupt the fraud, but only if the payment is slowed down early enough. The FBI said its Recovery Asset Team froze $679 million in 2025 through its Financial Fraud Kill Chain, but that tool depends on fast reporting and mainly applies to wire transfers. Other payment methods favoured by scammers, including gift cards, cash handed to a courier and cryptocurrency, are often unrecoverable by the time the victim realises what happened. Officials have also warned that these schemes are increasingly run by organised groups operating across borders, which makes prosecution slow and complicated.
That is why specialists increasingly recommend a family code phrase, but only if it is used correctly. Security experts quoted by CBS News say the safest option is a memorable phrase of at least four words that would not be easy to guess or find online. The phrase should be agreed in person or through a trusted number, never texted, emailed or stored in a cloud note. Most important, the person asking for help should say the phrase first. If the caller cannot do that unprompted, the call should end.
The bigger lesson is that preparation has to be simple enough to survive fear. Families are advised to practise a short script such as, “I need to call you back on the number I already have for you,” then hang up and verify the story through a known contact. Caller ID should not be trusted, since it can be spoofed. Hong Kong police and cybercrime experts have issued similar warnings after a man there lost HK$10 million, or about US$1.27 million, in an AI voice scam that used fake voice messages from someone posing as his father. As the technology improves, the defence remains stubbornly low-tech: a private question, a remembered answer and a refusal to rush.
Disclaimer: This article is intended to inform and educate, not to recommend or endorse any financial product, investment or strategy. Please consider your own financial circumstances and seek professional advice where appropriate before making financial decisions.
