Scammers are out of control. Every year fraudsters and cyber criminals make billions Cheating people and snatching their cash. romance fraud, business email agreement, investment scams, sextortion-The list of ways criminals prey on people is virtually endless and constantly changing.
This also includes impersonation scams, where a criminal pretends to be someone their target knows and extorts money. There is a growing demand among people and especially families to share passphrases or passwords with each other. In early December, the F.B.I. issued There is a recommendation that people “create a secret word or phrase with their family to verify your identity” and the British bank Starling has also published guidelines On creating safe phrases with others.
This is a simple approach – if not new – that could potentially be effective. For example, if you receive a message or call from your “son” or “daughter” and they are asking for immediate money to get out of a problem, asking them to provide a pre-agreed passphrase will help you find out. Could it really be them?
“Fraudsters will use manipulative tactics to put the victim in a vulnerable position where they act out of panic, urgency or urgency,” says Erin Englund, director of threat analytics at fraud detection firm Biocatch. “Having a passphrase or similar strategy in place helps victims quickly validate the legitimacy of unusual interactions and take control.”
Calls to create family passwords or passphrases come as scammers increasingly adopt AI. Machine learning has allowed criminals to create deepfake video impersonation Cloning people and voices with only a few seconds of audio. Scammers have used these voice clones To To make excuses Family members have been kidnapped and ransom is being demanded for their release.
“AI is creating a huge amount of risk for businesses and families,” says Rachel Toback, CEO of SocialProof Security. Toback says companies he's worked with are receiving AI voice-clone calls, also using fake phone numbers, from people trying to impersonate business executives.
“I also hear every day about some families who receive voice-cloning AI phone-call attacks about a nephew, grandchild or sibling being kidnapped or involved in a car accident where they called a pregnant Got hit and need money for legal fees and bail,” Toback says.
Creating a Good Family Password
Like your online passwords, there are some things you should and shouldn't do when it comes to creating a shared passphrase. For starters, you shouldn't make passphrases the same as any of your passwords, and they shouldn't be things that a scammer could easily find – like street names, birthdays, pets, or other personal information that might be shared online. Can.
“Consider everything 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.”