The next scam that reaches your family may not look like a scam.
The spelling may be perfect.
The logo may look right.
The text message may appear to come from a company you recognize.
The person calling may sound professional.
And, increasingly, the frightened voice on the other end of the phone could even sound remarkably like someone you love.
That’s part of what makes the latest findings from Consumer Reports so concerning.
According to a new national survey highlighted by CBS News, 9 in 10 U.S. adults said they encountered at least one scam or fraud attempt during the previous 12 months.
But the problem isn’t simply that scams are common.
Technology—particularly artificial intelligence—is making some of them more convincing.
Consumer Reports warns that AI can help scammers produce realistic messages, images, video and even cloned voices, removing some of the obvious warning signs families have traditionally been taught to look for.
That means the old advice to simply watch for bad grammar or suspicious-looking messages isn’t enough anymore.
Families may need a new rule:
The more urgent the message feels, the slower you should respond.
Nine Out of 10 Adults Encountered a Scam Attempt
The scale of the problem is difficult to ignore.
Consumer Reports’ new research found that 90% of U.S. adults surveyed had encountered at least one scam or fraud attempt during the previous year.
That doesn’t mean 90% lost money.
Encountering a scam attempt and becoming a fraud victim are very different things.
But it does mean scam attempts have become an ordinary part of modern life.
They arrive through email.
Text messages.
Phone calls.
Social media.
Online marketplaces.
Fake websites.
And increasingly, scammers may combine several of those channels.
A text leads to a website.
A phone call follows.
An email arrives that appears to confirm the story.
Suddenly something that would have looked suspicious as a single message begins to feel legitimate because several pieces seem to support one another.
That’s one reason families can’t depend on recognizing one stereotypical version of a scam.
AI Is Changing What “Fake” Looks Like
For years, one of the easiest ways to recognize a scam was that something looked wrong.
The email contained strange grammar.
The company logo was distorted.
The wording sounded unnatural.
The caller’s story didn’t quite make sense.
AI can remove many of those clues.
A scammer can use generative AI to produce polished emails that sound professional.
AI can help create realistic photographs.
It can generate fake documents.
It can imitate writing styles.
And voice-cloning technology can make a caller sound like someone the victim knows.
As CBS News reported in its coverage of the Consumer Reports findings, artificial intelligence is giving scammers tools that can make fraudulent messages and impersonations more believable.
That creates an important change in the way consumers should think about fraud.
Something looking professional is no longer evidence that it’s legitimate.
The Most Dangerous Ingredient May Still Be Urgency
Technology changes.
Human psychology doesn’t change nearly as quickly.
Scammers continue to rely heavily on one of their oldest tools:
urgency.
Your account will be closed.
Your electricity will be disconnected.
Your package cannot be delivered.
Your bank account has been compromised.
Your grandchild has been arrested.
Your child has been injured.
Someone used your credit card.
You owe money.
You must act immediately.
Urgency works because it changes the way people make decisions.
Instead of asking:
Does this make sense?
we begin asking:
How do I fix this?
That shift is exactly what the scammer wants.
The goal is often to move someone from thinking to reacting before they have time to independently verify the story.
Imagine Hearing Your Child’s Voice Asking for Help
Voice cloning makes that problem especially frightening for families.
Consider a phone call that appears to come from your daughter.
She’s crying.
She says she was in an accident.
Or arrested.
Or robbed while traveling.
She needs money immediately.
Then another person comes on the phone claiming to be a police officer, attorney or hospital employee.
A few years ago, many parents would have believed that simply recognizing their child’s voice was enough to establish that the call was real.
That assumption is becoming increasingly dangerous.
AI-generated voice technology can imitate a person’s speech using recordings of that person’s voice.
Those recordings may come from social-media videos or other publicly available content.
Its advice is straightforward:
If someone calls claiming that a loved one is in trouble, call that person back using a phone number you already know belongs to them.
Don’t rely on the number that called you.
Don’t rely solely on the voice.
Verify independently.
Families May Want a Secret Word
There is another remarkably simple defense against family impersonation scams.
Create a family verification word or phrase.
Choose something family members can remember but strangers wouldn’t easily guess from social media.
If someone calls claiming to be your child, grandchild, spouse or another close relative and urgently needs money, ask for the family word.
This shouldn’t replace other verification.
But it creates another obstacle for an impersonator.
Families should also make sure everyone understands why the word exists.
Teenagers should know it.
Adult children should know it.
Grandparents should know it.
The goal isn’t to make everyone suspicious of one another.
It’s to create a simple verification system before anyone is frightened.
The Text From Your Bank May Not Be From Your Bank
Another common scam begins with an alarming financial message.
“Did you authorize a $1,247 purchase?”
“Your account has been locked.”
“Suspicious activity detected.”
“Click here immediately.”
The message may even appear in the same text-message thread as legitimate messages from the bank.
This can happen through a technique known as spoofing, in which scammers manipulate identifying information so a call or message appears to come from a trusted source.
The safest response is usually not to interact with the message at all.
Instead, open the bank’s official app yourself.
Or type the bank’s website address yourself.
Or call the number printed on the back of your debit or credit card.
The important word is independently.
Don’t let the suspicious message choose the path you use to verify the suspicious message.
A Link Can Look Almost Right
Fake websites have become increasingly convincing.
A scammer doesn’t necessarily need to create an obviously strange-looking site.
The page can copy a company’s colors.
Logo.
Fonts.
Sign-in screen.
Product photographs.
Customer-service language.
Even privacy notices.
The web address may differ from the legitimate company’s address by only a character or two.
That’s why a text saying your package can’t be delivered can be so effective.
You are expecting a package.
The message appears to come from a delivery company.
The website looks real.
It asks for a small redelivery fee.
Maybe $1.99.
The amount feels too small to be dangerous.
But the $1.99 may not be the real objective.
Your payment information may be.
Small Payments Can Be a Big Warning Sign
Scammers often understand that consumers are more suspicious of a request for $2,000 than a request for $2.
A tiny fee feels plausible.
Package redelivery.
Account verification.
Unpaid toll.
Parking charge.
Subscription renewal.
Those small-dollar requests can lower a person’s defenses.
Before entering payment information, stop and ask:
Why did I arrive at this page?
If the answer is “because a text message told me to click a link,” that’s a good reason to leave the page and independently visit the company’s official site or app.
Older Adults Aren’t the Only Targets
Fraud is often discussed as though it’s primarily a problem for seniors.
Older adults can certainly be targeted, and some types of fraud can produce devastating losses.
But scammers target people across age groups.
Younger adults live much of their financial and social lives online.
They shop through social media.
Use peer-to-peer payment apps.
Buy concert tickets online.
Respond to rental listings.
Apply for jobs digitally.
Use online marketplaces.
Receive delivery notifications.
And communicate constantly through text and social platforms.
Each of those activities creates opportunities for scammers.
The lesson for families shouldn’t be:
We need to teach Grandma not to get scammed.
It should be:
Everyone in this family needs a verification habit.
Parents Should Talk to Teenagers About Scams Too
Teenagers may encounter scams that look very different from the ones targeting their grandparents.
Fake job offers.
Fake giveaways.
Gaming scams.
Account takeover attempts.
Fake online stores.
Social-media impersonation.
Cryptocurrency pitches.
Romance scams.
Fake scholarship offers.
Ticket scams.
A teenager may also be embarrassed to tell a parent after clicking something suspicious.
That makes the family’s response important.
If the first reaction is:
“How could you fall for that?”
the child may be less likely to speak up the next time.
A better response is:
“Let’s figure out what information they got and what we need to secure.”
Speed matters after a possible compromise.
Shame doesn’t help.
Scammers Want Payment Methods That Are Hard to Reverse
The way someone asks to be paid can be one of the strongest clues that something is wrong.
The Federal Trade Commission’s scam guidance warns consumers about scammers demanding payment through methods such as gift cards, cryptocurrency or certain money transfers.
Why?
Because once the money is sent, recovering it can be extremely difficult.
No legitimate government agency should require you to buy gift cards to settle a debt.
Your utility company isn’t going to demand cryptocurrency to keep the lights on.
A police officer isn’t going to tell Grandma to purchase thousands of dollars in gift cards to keep her grandson out of jail.
When the payment method itself seems unusual, stop.
Search the Story, Not Just the Phone Number
Suppose someone calls claiming to represent a company.
Instead of searching the phone number that called, search the company independently.
Go to the company’s official website.
Find its customer-service number there.
Then call.
Why not simply search the number?
Because search results can also contain misleading information.
The safest verification path begins with a source you independently know or locate.
This is particularly important when the caller claims to represent a bank, government agency, utility company or major retailer.
Don’t Trust Caller ID
Caller ID feels authoritative.
It isn’t.
A phone may display:
“Bank Fraud Department.”
“Police Department.”
“IRS.”
Or even the name of someone you know.
That doesn’t prove who is calling.
Caller ID information can be spoofed.
Treat it as a clue, not identification.
If the call matters, hang up and call the organization back using a number obtained independently.
A legitimate organization can survive a five-minute verification delay.
A scammer usually doesn’t want you taking that time.
One Family Rule Could Stop Many Scams
Families could adopt a very simple rule:
We never send money, share a verification code or provide sensitive financial information because of an unexpected incoming call, email or text without independently verifying the request first.
That one rule addresses a surprising number of scams.
Grandchild emergency?
Verify.
Bank fraud alert?
Verify through the bank app.
Utility shutoff?
Call the utility using the number on your bill.
Package problem?
Open the retailer or carrier app yourself.
IRS problem?
Go directly to the government’s official site.
Employer asking for gift cards?
Call the employer through a known number.
The situation changes.
The rule doesn’t.
Never Share a Verification Code With Someone Who Calls You
This deserves special attention.
Suppose someone calls claiming to be from your bank.
During the conversation, you receive a legitimate text from the bank containing a six-digit security code.
The caller says:
“I just sent you a verification code. Read it back to me so I can secure your account.”
That legitimate text can make the caller seem legitimate.
But the caller may actually be attempting to log into your account.
The code was sent because the bank is trying to verify them.
Giving them the code may provide exactly what they need to get in.
If an unexpected caller asks you to read a security code aloud, stop the conversation.
Contact the company independently.
AI Makes Family Social-Media Habits Worth Reconsidering
Families don’t need to disappear from social media.
But AI-powered impersonation makes it worth considering what information is publicly available.
Names.
Birthdays.
Vacation plans.
Children’s schools.
Pet names.
Relatives.
Videos containing clear voice recordings.
Workplaces.
Locations.
All of those details can potentially help someone create a more believable story.
A scammer who knows your grandson’s name, college and mother’s name sounds considerably more convincing than one who simply says:
“Your grandson is in trouble.”
Privacy settings won’t eliminate fraud.
But families should understand that the information they publicly share can sometimes become raw material for social engineering.
What to Do If You Think You Fell for a Scam
The first step is not to panic.
The second is not to hide it.
Act quickly.
If money was sent, contact the bank, credit-card company or payment provider immediately and ask whether the transaction can be stopped or reversed.
If a password was shared, change it immediately and avoid reusing the compromised password elsewhere.
If a verification code was provided, contact the affected account provider.
If sensitive personal information was exposed, additional steps such as monitoring credit reports or placing a credit freeze may be appropriate depending on what was compromised.
Consumers can report fraud through the Federal Trade Commission’s ReportFraud.gov.
The sooner someone responds, the more options may still be available.
Don’t Be Embarrassed
This may be one of the most important messages from the changing scam environment.
People sometimes imagine fraud victims as careless.
But modern scams are deliberately engineered to bypass careful thinking.
They use fear.
Authority.
Love.
Urgency.
Technology.
Personal information.
And now increasingly sophisticated AI.
A parent who hears what sounds exactly like a terrified child crying for help isn’t foolish for feeling panic.
That’s precisely the reaction the scam was designed to create.
The defense isn’t believing:
I’m too smart to be scammed.
It’s building habits that still work when you’re scared.
Slow Down the Fastest Part of the Scam
The Consumer Reports finding that 9 in 10 Americans encountered a scam or fraud attempt in the past year sounds alarming.
But it also suggests something practical.
Families shouldn’t treat fraud prevention as a conversation reserved for elderly relatives or after someone loses money.
It can become an ordinary household conversation.
Pick a family verification word.
Teach teenagers not to share security codes.
Tell grandparents that a familiar voice can potentially be cloned.
Show everyone how to independently contact the bank.
Talk about suspicious package texts.
And establish one rule before the frightening call ever comes:
Urgency doesn’t eliminate verification. It makes verification more important.
Because the next scam may have perfect grammar.
The website may look real.
The caller ID may display the right name.
The photograph may look authentic.
And the voice may even sound like someone you love.
In the age of artificial intelligence, recognizing something familiar is no longer enough.
Before you trust it, verify it somewhere the message, caller or scammer cannot control.