The Phone Call That Sounds Exactly Like Your Daughter

At ten past eleven the phone lights up, and it's your daughter, crying. She's in trouble, she needs money and she needs it tonight. The voice is hers, right down to the breath she takes before she says the name she has called you since she was two.

Every instinct says pay.

A few seconds of recorded voice is now enough to clone a voice, which means AI can copy it. A voicemail greeting or a birthday video posted anywhere will do. The tools cost nothing, and the people using them aren't clever, but they have something that didn't exist two years ago. The old advice was to look for bad spelling, and that advice is no use now, because AI writes and spells these messages perfectly.

The defence that works is older than any of this, and it's a word only your family knows, plus a phone call back.

Agree a family word

Choose the word with the people who would send money if they thought you were in trouble, such as parents, partner, adult children or a sibling. If someone rings in a panic asking for money or help, the other person asks for the word. A perfect copy of your voice still doesn't know the word.

Make the word odd and never posted anywhere, so no pet's name or birthday. Two unrelated words work well, for example "custard ladder", because they're easy to remember and impossible to guess.

Agree the word face to face or by phone, never in writing. All it takes is a sentence. "AI can fake voices now, so if any of us ever rings asking for money, ask for the word. If they don't know it, hang up and ring back."

Then say the word.

It takes four minutes, done once. The word works however good the fake voice is, as long as everyone remembers it and nobody posts it. Check the word once a year, at Christmas.

Hang up and ring back

The word covers your family, and ringing back covers everyone else. That means the bank, the police, the delivery company, HMRC and the grandson's "friend".

If a call asks for money, a code or a password, or asks you to hurry, hang up. Ring the person or organisation back on a number you already had, from your contacts or the back of your card. Never use the number they give you.

Scammers count on hanging up feeling rude when someone sounds upset. So agree with your family now that hanging up isn't rude. "I'll ring you straight back" is what a person who loves you says.

Paste the message in and ask

For texts and emails, the AI tools that write the scams can read them too. Take out any links before you paste the message in, so you can't click one by accident, and then ask this.

I got this message. Tell me honestly whether it looks like a scam, and why. Tell me what it's asking me to do, what pressure it's using, and what a real [bank / delivery company / HMRC] would and wouldn't do. Then tell me the safest next step.

Urgency, a link to "verify", a request to move money to a "safe account" and a fee to release a parcel are all patterns AI knows.

When a message is probably fine, AI will say so too. And AI can be wrong both ways, because a well-made scam can look harmless and a clumsy message from your real bank can look like a scam.

Treat AI's answer as a second opinion and make the final call yourself. If AI says "probably a scam", contact the sender on a number you already had. If AI says "probably fine", still don't click the link, and go to the real website yourself.

Talk to your parents

The people most likely to get the call are the least likely to read this page, so the job is yours. Don't lead with technology, because nobody wants a lecture about AI from their children. Lead with the story. "There's a scam going round where they fake a relative's voice on the phone. I'd rather we had a word, in case."

Then agree the word and the ring-back rule over a cup of tea.

While you're there, check two things if they have a smart speaker or a smartphone. First, is their voicemail greeting in their own voice? A standard recorded greeting gives a scammer less to work with. Second, is their social media public?

The scam works by making people panic, so the defence has to be agreed beforehand, on a calm afternoon. And say the line that matters most out loud. "If you ever get a call like that, ring me. Even if it's three in the morning. I'd much rather a wasted call than the other thing."

Ring your parents before Sunday and agree the word.