The secret codewords that scammers hate

Deepfake scams might use your voice, but they don't know what's in your head. Five minutes of preparation could save your loved ones from falling for fraud.

"It was the most terror I've ever felt," says Elizabeth Benz, a mother from Buffalo, New York.

In September 2025, she got a phone call. "It was my 16-year-old-son, John," she says. "He was sobbing, 'Mom, my friend is dead. He's dead.'" She panicked, but things were about to get even worse.

A stranger took the phone. Over the course of 20 minutes, the man told her he'd just murdered her son's friend, and he'd do the same to John if she didn't meet him with $7,500 (£5,570) in a Walmart parking lot.

"He said, 'We are going to kill your son,'" Benz says.

Soon she was driving over. But just in time, John's brother got hold of him. He was at a football game. John wasn't in danger, and that wasn't his voice on the phone. It was all an AI deepfake scam. "I couldn't believe it," she says.

If you think you or your loved ones are too savvy to fall for a deepfake, you're wrong. AI is so good now you can no longer trust your senses, and criminals are perpetrating scams like these on a massive scale.

Thankfully, it's a high-tech problem with a low-tech solution – one that could save you a lifetime of regret.

Your family needs a codeword that you use to verify each other's identity in a crisis. The scammer might have your voice. They don't know your secrets. Experts and victims say this is one of the single most important things you can do to stay safe. But the password alone isn't enough.

Just ask Benz. One of the craziest parts of her story is her family already had a password for this exact scenario when she got the scam call.

"It just didn't occur to me to ask for it," says Benz. "These scams get you to an active place of panic where you can't think straight." It means you also need mental preparation. That's a little more complicated, but the tips below can help.

If you get targeted, it could be some of the most important advice you'll ever read.

Americans alone lost an estimated $148.2bn (£110.1bn) to online scams and crimes in 2025, up nearly 26% from the year prior. AI-enabled scams accounted for $6.3bn (£4.7bn) of that. Experts say they're growing........

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