As artificial intelligence voice-cloning technology becomes increasingly sophisticated, security experts and fraud victims are urging families to adopt a simple safeguard against extortion schemes: an agreed-upon, private emergency codeword.
Criminals are utilizing AI-generated voice replicas to stage convincing emergency scenarios, targeting individuals with high-pressure demands for money. While high-tech defenses continue to evolve, experts emphasize that pre-established personal verification phrases remain one of the most reliable countermeasures.
According to industry estimates, Americans lost approximately $148.2 billion (£110.1 billion) to online scams and fraud in 2025, marking an increase of nearly 26% compared to the prior year. AI-enabled fraud accounted for $6.3 billion (£4.7 billion) of that total, with specialists warning that such operations are expanding at an exponential rate.
Hany Farid, co-founder of GetReal Security and a specialist in AI deepfakes, noted that the public is largely unprepared for the psychological impact of these attacks.
“This is not hypothetical,” Farid said. “These scams are being perpetrated all over the world. Imagine getting a call at 02:00, a voicemail, a video call, a loved one saying they’re in trouble. Or maybe it’s your CEO, screaming that he needs help logging in. The average consumer is not ready for this.”
Farid advises households to select a phrase that is easy for family members to recall but difficult for outsiders to deduce, such as an inside joke. He uses a similar protocol with his wife during unexpected or high-stakes requests.
“If my wife calls and asks me to pick up milk, I’m not asking for the password,” Farid said. “But if I happen to know she’s in a meeting, or she says been in an accident and needs me to transfer money, anything unusual, that’s when you use it.”
The Psychological Barrier
Security advocates point out that having a password is only effective if family members remember to deploy it during an actual crisis. The intense panic generated by deepfake calls frequently impairs rational decision-making.
In September 2025, Elizabeth Benz, a resident of Buffalo, New York, received a phone call featuring what sounded precisely like her 16-year-old son, John, sobbing and claiming his friend had died. A man then seized the line, claimed to have killed the friend, and threatened to execute John unless Benz delivered $7,500 (£5,570) to a Walmart parking lot.
“It was the most terror I’ve ever felt,” Benz recalled. “He said, ‘We are going to kill your son.’”
Benz was already en route to the location when John’s brother managed to reach him directly. John was safe at a football game, and the audio on the call was entirely fabricated. Despite having previously established a family password for such events, Benz had not asked for it.
“It just didn’t occur to me to ask for it,” Benz said. “These scams get you to an active place of panic where you can’t think straight.”
Recognizing the Warning Signs
Gary Schildhorn, a Philadelphia attorney who avoided a deepfake scam in 2023 and now works as a fraud-safety advocate, highlighted three primary indicators common to these operations:
- Immediate time pressure: Perpetrators demand urgent compliance to prevent victims from thinking critically.
- Untraceable payment methods: Demands center on cash, gift cards, or cryptocurrency rather than traceable bank transactions.
- Communication isolation: Attackers attempt to dictate and restrict who the victim speaks to during the encounter.
Brian Long, co-founder of enterprise AI-security training firm Adaptive Security, stressed that mental preparation is vital to overcoming fear-induced reactions.
“One of the most important things is how you react,” Long said. “You need to train your mental model to prepare for this scenario.”
Experts recommend setting routine reminders—such as quarterly notifications—to review the codeword with relatives and reinforce a standardized response plan: remain calm, request the verification phrase, and confirm the situation with trusted contacts before taking action.
“I share my story because I want people to know how urgent and scary and psychological and realistic these calls can be,” Benz said. “Awareness is the greatest tool.”
Source: BBC — https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260804-why-your-family-needs-a-secret-codeword
