Scammers are out of control. Every year, fraudsters and cybercriminals make billions by tricking people into parting with their money. Romance scam, business email compromise, investment scams, sextortion—the list of ways criminals prey on people is almost endless and ever-changing.

Add impersonation scams, where a criminal pretends to be someone their target knows and takes money. There are increasing calls for people, and especially families, to create passphrases or passwords for each other. At the beginning of December, the FBI released a recommendation that people create a “secret word or phrase with your family to verify their identity,” and also published by the British bank Starling guides to create safe phrases with others.

It’s a simple, if not innovative, approach – one that can be effective. For example, if you receive a message or call from your “son” or “daughter,” and they urgently ask for money to get out of trouble, asking them to provide a pre-agreed passphrase may reveal if are they really? .

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

Calls to create family passwords or passphrases have come as scammers are increasingly adopting AI. Machine learning allows criminals to create deep fake pretend videos people and to clone voices in just a few seconds of audio. Scammers use these voice clones on pretend family members were kidnapped and demanded a ransom for their freedom.

“AI creates enormous risks for businesses and families,” said Rachel Tobac, CEO of SocialProof Security. Tobac said the companies he works with are on the receiving end of AI voice-cloned calls, which also use spoofed phone numbers, trying to impersonate business executives.

“I also hear about some families every day receiving AI phone call attacks that clone a niece, nephew, or sibling in hysterics about being kidnapped or involved in a car accident where they hit a pregnant woman and need money for legal fees and bail,” said Tobac.

Create a Good Family Password

As with your online passwords, there are dos and don’ts when it comes to creating a shared passphrase. For starters, you shouldn’t create a passphrase that’s the same as any of your passwords, and it shouldn’t be something a scammer could easily find—like street names, birthdays, pets, or something else. personal information that may be shared online.

“Think of anything you or your loved ones post on the internet as data that scammers can use,” says Englund. “Even if you keep all social media private, your data is available to your connections and followers who can be hacked.”