AI deepfakes have gotten terrifyingly good at fooling people, and honestly, your boomer parents are in the crosshairs. We’re talking about criminals who can clone someone’s voice in 15 seconds, generate videos that look completely real, and create fake phone calls from people you love, all to steal your family’s life savings.

The problem is getting worse fast. A 2025 Federal Trade Commission report found that fraud losses for adults 60 and older skyrocketed from $600 million in 2020 to $2.4 billion in 2024. That’s a massive jump, and much of it is coming from AI-powered scams where criminals impersonate family members in crisis situations. A fake call about a car accident, an arrest, a ransom demand, anything that creates panic and demands immediate action.

Hany Farid, a UC Berkeley professor who’s spent over 20 years studying manipulated media, says the situation is critical. “We used to measure progress in years. Now it’s happening in weeks”, he explains. The technology is improving faster than anyone can defend against it, which means the old ways of spotting fakes just don’t work anymore.

But here’s the good news: protecting yourself doesn’t require becoming a tech expert. Farid recommends three simple habits that actually work.

First, create a family code word. Seriously. Agree on something unique with your parents, siblings, and close friends. If someone calls claiming to be your kid and needs money immediately, you ask for the code word. That simple pause gives everyone a chance to verify who’s actually on the phone. Just make sure you test each other occasionally so people remember to use it.

Second, always hang up and call back on a known number. Even if caller ID shows your kid’s number, scammers can spoof phone numbers to make it look like the call is coming from someone you trust. Hanging up and calling back on a number you know is legitimate creates another verification layer before you act.

Third, when it comes to viral videos and shocking stories circulating online, skip the detective work. Instead, just search for fact-checking sites like Snopes, PolitiFact, or FactCheck.org. These organizations routinely debunk widely shared content, and chances are whatever wild video your uncle shared has already been investigated. As Farid puts it, “Most of this content has been debunked by the time you’re seeing it. It’s often just a search away”.

The key insight here is that you can’t tech your way out of this problem. You have to change how you respond to these messages and calls. Share these tips with your parents, set up a family code word together, and remind them that hesitation isn’t rudeness, it’s survival.