Family codewords can foil AI deepfake scams

As AI-enabled fraud costs Americans billions, experts urge families to adopt secret codewords to verify identities during crisis calls. A Buffalo mother nearly paid $7,500 after scammers cloned her son's voice, despite having a password she forgot to use. With losses to online scams reaching $148.2bn in 2025, preparation and mental training are vital defenses against increasingly sophisticated deepfake schemes.