- A family safe word, agreed on in person or by phone and never sent as text, is the single fastest way to invalidate a cloned-voice emergency call.
- This entire checklist takes about twenty minutes and costs nothing; every item is a setting to turn on or a conversation to have once.
- The goal isn't to make your family suspicious of every call. It's to have one quick, agreed-on way to verify the ones that matter.
Most fraud-prevention advice arrives after something already went wrong. This is the other kind: a short checklist meant to be done once, calmly, before anyone in your family gets a convincing call. See our guide to AI voice cloning scams for why this has become more urgent, but the checklist itself doesn't require reading that first.
The checklist
- Do this
- Agree on a family safe word, in person or by phone only
- Why it matters
- The fastest way to invalidate a cloned-voice emergency call
- Do this
- Turn on account alerts for withdrawals and transfers
- Why it matters
- Catches unauthorized activity within minutes, not at the next statement
- Do this
- Save your bank's real number from your card or app
- Why it matters
- So you never need to trust a number a caller provides
- Do this
- Write down who to call if something happens
- Why it matters
- Removes the panic-driven decision of "who do I even contact"
- Do this
- Talk about the specific scams in this guide, once
- Why it matters
- Familiarity is itself a defense; a script you've heard before is easier to recognize
- Do this
- Revisit this list once a year
- Why it matters
- Phone numbers, accounts, and family circumstances change
1. Agree on a family safe word
Pick a word or short phrase that means nothing searchable about your family, not a pet's name from a public social media post, not a hometown, not a birthday. Share it only in person or over a phone call you initiated, never by text or email, since either could be intercepted or, in a worst case, be the very channel a scammer is using. If someone calls claiming to be a relative in trouble and asking for money, ask for the safe word before anything else. A real relative can give it. A scammer, even one using a cloned voice, cannot.
2. Turn on account alerts
Most banks let you set a free alert for any withdrawal, transfer, or new-device login above a threshold you choose. This turns "found out weeks later" into "found out within minutes," which is often the difference between stopping a transfer and not.
3. Save your bank's real number now
Get it from the back of your physical card or your bank's official app, and save it in your phone under a clear name. This is what makes "hang up and call back" actually fast in the moment, instead of a step you have to improvise under pressure.
4. Write down who to call
A short list, kept somewhere every family member can find it: each person's bank fraud line, the FTC's reporting portal (reportfraud.ftc.gov), and, for wire or elder-targeted fraud, the FBI's IC3 (ic3.gov). Deciding this in advance removes one more decision from a moment when clear thinking is hardest.
5. Talk through the specific scams once
You don't need to read every fraud article that exists. Read our guides to AI voice clone scams and deepfake bank scams once, as a family, so the pattern is familiar if it ever shows up. A script you've heard described in advance is much easier to recognize live.
6. Revisit it once a year
Phone numbers change, banks change, family circumstances change. Set a yearly reminder to confirm the safe word still works and the saved numbers are current.
If you're setting this up for an older relative
See our senior scam protection guide for a version of this framed for adult children helping a parent or older relative, since the conversation itself needs a gentler approach than a straightforward checklist.
Quick answers
What's the fastest item to set up? The family safe word. It takes one conversation and stops most cloned-voice emergency calls immediately.
Does this only matter for older family members? No. The FBI's 2025 data shows AI-enabled fraud losses spanning all age groups, not just seniors.
How often should we update this? Once a year is enough for most families, or any time a phone number, bank, or family circumstance changes.
Sources
- FBI 2025 Internet Crime Report: the source for the AI-scam loss figure cited above.
- FTC: Report Fraud: federal scam-reporting portal referenced in the checklist.
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3): federal reporting channel for wire and online fraud.
Methodology
This checklist reflects generally recommended fraud-prevention practices from consumer-protection and law-enforcement sources cited above. This is general educational information, not personalized security advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a family safe word and how do we pick one?
Do we need to do this if we don't think we're a target?
What's the single most important item on this checklist?
What should I do after reading The Family Fraud Protection Kit: A Checklist to Set Up Once?
The 5-minute money briefing
One email per week. New rates, fed moves, and what to actually do about them.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Answer a few questions about your situation and goals. Money Map points you to the highest-value next step across savings, mortgage, cards, and debt.
Editorial review
What changed since the last update
Was this guide helpful?
Found an inaccurate, outdated, or missing claim? Report a correction. We verify reports against the relevant source before changing a guide or ranking.
