What are grandparent scams?
Grandparent scams occur when a bad actor uses a grandchild deep fake—an AI voice or video impersonation of a grandchild—to fraudulently ask a grandparent for money. Often these grandchild deep fakes claim to be in an emergency, needing money for bail or to pay for a car accident (Vellani & Common, 2025).
What are grandchild deep fakes?
Grandchild deep fakes utilize AI technology to impersonate or clone a grandchild’s voice. Other scams go as far as using AI to create fake videos of the grandchild. The scammers find photos, videos, and voice recordings of the grandchild online and feed it to AI, making these deep fakes seem very legitimate. According to one source, “to clone a voice, a scammer needs a sound bite between three and 30 seconds long” (Bailey, 2024).
Sometimes, these scammers even spoof the grandchild’s phone number, so the caller ID appears legitimate ('Grandparent' Scams Get More Sophisticated, 2025).
How do the scammers receive their money?
These scammers often ask for money via nontraditional networks, such as cryptocurrency, gift cards, and wire transfers (Puig, 2023).
What are the signs of a grandparent scam?
There are a few signs of grandparent scams:
- Needing money urgently. Grandparent scams often pressure the grandparent to send money right away and claim there is some kind of crisis.
- Calling late at night. These scammers often call late at night when grandparents are off-guard and more likely to act in panic (United States Postal Inspection Service, 2022).
- Requesting nontraditional forms of payment. These scammers often ask for money via nontraditional networks, such as cryptocurrency, gift cards, and wire transfers (Puig, 2023).
- Claiming to be in a crisis. Often the grandchild’s voice clone claims to be in an emergency, needing money for bail or to pay for a car accident (Vellani & Common, 2025).
How can you prevent falling victim to a grandparent scam?
You can prevent falling victim to a grandparent scam by doing the following:
- Updating privacy settings on social media accounts.
- Establishing a family “safe word” or password for to verify the grandchild’s identity.
- Hanging up and calling back the grandchild on his or her cell phone.
How common are grandparent scams?
Scams targeting grandparents are on the rise. Recently, the Justice Department in Vermont charged 25 people for committing $21 million in scams targeting grandparents (District of Vermont United States Attorney's Office, 2025).
Deepfake scams, or scams utilizing AI technology to generate fraudulent voice and video content, are also rising, with older Americans losing $3.4 billion to this type of scam in 2023 (National Council on Aging, 2024).
What should you do if you are a victim of a grandparent scam?
If you are a victim of a grandparent scam, report it.
- Contact your bank. If you are a Community customer, call us at 773-685-5300. If you are not a customer, find your bank with the FDIC’s BankFind Suite.
- File a report with the FTC. File a report with the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
- Contact the FBI. Make a report with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.
Works Cited
Bailey, M. (2024, January). Artificial Intelligence: Taking the Grandparent Scam to the Next Level. Retrieved from County of Fairfax County: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/familyservices/older-adults/golden-gazette/2024-01-artificial-intelligence-taking-the-grandparent-scam-to-the-next-level
District of Vermont United States Attorney's Office. (2025, March 4). 25 Canadian Nationals Charged in Vermont in Connection with Nationwide Multimillion-Dollar “Grandparent Scam”. Retrieved from District of Vermont United States Attorney's Office: https://www.justice.gov/usao-vt/pr/25-canadian-nationals-charged-vermont-connection-nationwide-multimillion-dollar
'Grandparent' Scams Get More Sophisticated. (2025, March 6). Retrieved from Federal Communication Commission: https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/scam-alert/grandparent-scams-get-more-sophisticated
National Council on Aging. (2024, October 24). Understanding Deepfakes: What Older Adults Need to Know. Retrieved from National Council on Aging: https://www.ncoa.org/article/understanding-deepfakes-what-older-adults-need-to-know/
Puig, A. (2023, March 23). Scammers use AI to enhance their family emergency schemes. Retrieved from Federal Trade Commission: https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2023/03/scammers-use-ai-enhance-their-family-emergency-schemes
United States Postal Inspection Service. (2022, June 1). Grandparent Scams. Retrieved from United States Postal Inspection Service: https://www.uspis.gov/news/scam-article/grandparent-scams
Vellani, N., & Common, D. (2025, March 20). Her grandson's voice said he was under arrest. This senior was almost scammed with suspected AI voice cloning. Retrieved from CBC: https://www.cbc.ca/news/marketplace/marketplace-ai-voice-scam-1.7486437