You Need to Create a Secret Password With Your Family

Scammers are out of control. Every year, fraudsters and cybercriminals Earn billions By tricking people into parting with their cash. Love fraud, Business Email Compromise, Investment scams, sex— The list of ways criminals prey on people is virtually endless and constantly changing.

Add to that impersonation scams, where a criminal pretends to be someone their target knows and withdraws money. There is a growing call for people, especially families, to create passphrases or passwords with each other. In early December, the FBI issued A recommendation that people “create a secret word or phrase with your family to verify their identity” has also been published by British bank Sterling. guidelines About creating safe phrases with others.

This is a simple, if not new, approach – one that could potentially be effective. For example, if you get a message or call from your “boy” or “girl” and they urgently want money to get out of a jam, asking them to provide a pre-agreed passphrase can reveal if it’s really them.

“Fraudsters will use manipulative tactics to put the victim in a vulnerable position where they act out of panic, urgency or desire,” said Erin England, a director of threat analytics at fraud-detection firm BioCatch. “Having a passphrase or similarly prepared technique enables victims to quickly verify the legitimacy of an unusual interaction and take control.”

The call to create family passwords or passphrases comes as scammers are increasingly adopting AI. Machine learning has allowed criminals to create Incognito deepfake videos Humans and voice clones with just a few seconds of audio. Scammers have used these voice clones from pretend Family members are kidnapped and ransom is demanded for their release.

“AI is creating enormous risks for businesses and families,” said Rachel Toback, CEO of SocialProof Security. Toback said companies he’s worked with have been on the receiving end of AI voice-clone calls, which also use spoofed phone numbers, to try to impersonate business executives.

“I also hear every day from families who are hysterical about voice-cloning AI phone-call attacks abducting a nephew, grandchild, or sibling or being involved in a car accident where they hurt someone pregnant and need legal money. Fees and bail,” says Toback.

Create a good family password

As with your online passwords, there are dos and don’ts when it comes to creating shared passphrases. For starters, you shouldn’t create passphrases like passwords, and they shouldn’t be anything a scammer can easily find—like street names, birthdays, pets, or other personal information that might be shared online.

“Consider anything you or your loved ones post online as data available to scammers,” says Englund. “Even if you keep all social media private, your data is available to your connections and followers who can be hacked.”