Someone called my mom this morning using a cloned version of my voice claiming i was in an accident and needed bail money. she didnt fall for it because we have a family code word, thankfully. but im furious and want to know what to do next. report where? prevent how
Action steps in order: 1) report to FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, that creates a record even if no money was lost, 2) report to your local police non-emergency line, 3) report to your phone carrier to flag the originating number, 4) longer term: establish a family verification phrase if you havent (you have, good), 5) reduce your voice footprint online by limiting public videos with your audio if your social presence is large. for the immediate emotional response, the family code word saved you. that’s the single most effective defense and worth telling every family you know.
on the FTC report. they aggregate these and the data is being used to track operations. its not satisfying in the moment but its useful at population scale.
@Marc_Delrieu thank you for the structured list. im going to do all of these today.
We added a ‘family phrase’ line item to our HR onboarding security training last year. cant recommend enough.