Grandparents Day reminder: Help protect grandma and grandpa from scams

Grandparents would do almost anything for their children and grandchildren. Scammers exploit that love, taking older adults on an emotional rollercoaster and pushing them to act before they have a chance to question the story.

This Grandparents Day, make time for more than a card or phone call. Talk frankly about scams, AI-generated voices and deepfakes, and agree on a simple plan your family can use when an alarming message arrives.

Key takeaways

• Grandparent scams create a fake family emergency and pressure the victim to send money before checking the story
• AI can help criminals imitate a grandchild’s voice or create convincing messages, images and videos
• Loneliness and isolation can make ongoing romance or friendship scams harder for family members to notice
• Public social media posts can reveal names, relationships, schools, travel plans and other details that can make impersonation scams more convincing
• Regular, judgment-free conversations are among the best ways families can help older loved ones recognize and report scams

Ahead of Grandparents Day, the FBI is warning families about a rise in grandparent scams, including schemes that use AI to impersonate loved ones. With the school year underway and many older grandchildren away at college, an unexpected call claiming that a student has been arrested, injured or left without money can feel frighteningly believable.

Why families should talk about grandparent scams now

FBI officials in Ohio recently warned that criminals may pose as a grandchild at college who suddenly needs financial help. They also cautioned that AI can supercharge these scams, making impersonations more convincing.

The timing matters a lot too. A grandparent may not know a student’s routine, roommates, or travel plans, which gives a scammer room to invent a plausible emergency. The caller might claim the grandchild has been in an accident, arrested, stranded or hospitalized. Sometimes a second person joins the call pretending to be a lawyer, police officer or doctor.

The details change, but the emotional formula is remarkably consistent: fear, urgency and secrecy. The grandparent is told to act immediately, not to call the student’s parents and to pay through gift cards, cryptocurrency, a wire transfer, cash or even a courier sent to the home.

Treat any demand to keep a family emergency secret as a warning sign. A real loved one will understand if you pause to verify what happened.

AI makes a familiar scam feel very real

A scam caller no longer needs merely to sound like a frightened young person. With a short audio sample taken from a video or social media post, criminals can now imitate even a loved family member.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has also repeatedly warned that families should not trust a familiar-sounding voice on its own. AI-generated messages, images and video can also add credibility to a fabricated emergency.

Tell your grandparents to hang up and call the relative back using a number they already know. If they can't reach that person, they should contact a parent, sibling, friend, or another trusted relative. They should never use the phone number the caller provided.

Families can also choose a private verification word or phrase that should be kept off social media.

Yes, it may sound far-fetched, but today’s threat landscape requires proactive measures that can actually help you and your family member ward off scammers impersonating someone in the family.

Real-life stories are more numerous than we can count, but here are some examples of AI-powered impersonation scam that targeted parents:

• ‘Mom, I Crashed the Car!’: Scammers Clone Son’s Voice to Ask Parents for $15,000 Bailout
• Florida Woman Loses $15K to AI Voice Scam Mimicking Daughter in Distress

Loneliness can open the door to romance and friendship scams

Not every scam begins with panic. Some begin with a friendly message, a compliment or a stranger who seems happy to listen.

Loneliness can affect anyone, but an older adult who lives alone, has lost a partner or hears infrequently from family may welcome a new online connection. A romance scammer may spend weeks or months building trust before introducing a medical emergency, travel problem or investment opportunity and asking for money.

In 2025, people over the age of 60 filed more than 201,000 complaints with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center and reported losses exceeding $7.7 billion. The FBI notes that isolation or loneliness can encourage some older adults to engage with strangers, but knowledge or education does not make anyone immune. Skilled scammers manipulate emotions and adapt their approach to the person in front of them.

Watch for changes without invading your grandparent’s privacy. Sudden secrecy about a new online relationship, repeated requests for money, plans to send cryptocurrency or gift cards, or a person who always has an excuse not to meet or video chat may indicate a scam.

Approach the conversation with care. Accusations and embarrassment can push a victim further toward the scammer. Ask calm questions, listen, and remind them that they will not be judged for telling you what happened.

If someone you love is already emotionally invested in an online relationship, evidence alone may not be enough. Read our guide on how to talk to someone caught in a romance scam who won’t listen for advice on keeping the conversation open without pushing them away.

You may also want to read:

• Deepfakes are making romance scams harder to doubt
• Is that video real? How to spot a deepfake before it fools you

Check what family members share online

Protecting a grandparent’s social media account is only part of the job. A scammer can learn about the family from a grandchild’s public profile, a parent’s post or even a tagged photo.

Names, nicknames, relationships, birthdays, schools, college move-in posts, vacation dates and photos showing a location can all help a criminal build a believable story. A post announcing that a grandchild has left for college may be enough to inspire a fake call about an emergency on campus.

Take a few minutes as a family to:

• Set social media accounts to private and review who can see posts, stories and friend lists
• Remove followers or connections family members do not recognize
• Limit public posts about schools, travel plans, addresses and daily routines
• Review old posts, tags and profile details that reveal family relationships
• Turn on two-factor authentication and use a different, strong password for every account
• Ask relatives before posting or tagging photos and personal information about them

Privacy settings reduce exposure, but they cannot erase information that has already been copied, leaked or shared elsewhere.

Remember: Handle every unexpected request for money or sensitive information with caution and verify it independently.

Protect their dignity as well as their money

The most useful Grandparents Day gift may be a conversation that makes it easier for them to ask for help later.

Older adults need protection, but they also need dignity. Conversations that begin with love and concern can easily sound patronizing if relatives say things such as “You don’t understand technology,” or “You can be fooled very easily”.

We’ve covered more on this topic, in this article with expert insights from psychotherapist Anca Ivu.

Ask whether they would like help reviewing a privacy setting or checking a message instead of simply taking the device from them. Show them what to look for and let them decide whenever possible. The goal is to add support without taking away their confidence or control.

Talk about a real example, explain that AI can copy voices and images, and agree on a few family rules:

• No one in the family will ever object to a callback or ask for an emergency payment to be kept secret
• Requests for money, passwords, verification codes or banking details must be checked with another family member
• No legitimate police agency, court, bank or government department will demand payment in gift cards or cryptocurrency
• No legitimate bank or law enforcement agency will send a person to your door to pick up what they call a “compromised” credit card and hand you a new one
• If something feels wrong, the grandparent can call a designated family member at any time, without fear of criticism
• If money has already been sent, the family will focus first on stopping the transaction and reporting the fraud, not assigning blame

Keep the conversation going after Grandparents Day. Check in regularly, share new scam examples in plain language, and make sure your grandparents know that asking for a second opinion is a smart habit, not a sign that they can’t handle technology.

Give grandparents an easy way to check suspicious messages

If your grandparents receive a questionable text, email, social media message, link or QR code, show them how to use Bitdefender Scamio. The free AI-powered scam detector can analyze the content and offer a quick second opinion. Suspicious web addresses can also be checked with the free Bitdefender Link Checker before accessing them

Technology cannot replace family communication, but it can add another layer of support. Online risks affect every generation differently, so protection should adapt to different ages, habits and needs.

A Bitdefender Family plan can protect your entire family through one subscription. Younger children can benefit from parental controls and safer browsing, while teenagers, parents and grandparents receive protection against malicious links, phishing, scams and other online threats. Depending on the plan, families can also use password management, comprehensive scam protection and identity-monitoring features.

What to do if a grandparent has already sent money to a scammer

1. Contact their bank, card issuer, payment service or cryptocurrency platform immediately and ask whether the transfer can be stopped or recalled.
2. If gift cards were used, contact the company that issued them and keep the cards and receipts.
3. Save messages, phone numbers, usernames, payment records and other evidence.
4. Report the incident to local law enforcement and to the FBI at IC3.gov. You can also report fraud to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
5. Change passwords if login details were shared, starting with email and financial accounts, and enable two-factor authentication.

Most importantly, do not shame your grandparents for falling for a scam. Scammers are trained to manipulate people, and embarrassment can prevent older adults from reporting quickly or asking for help. The goal is to stop the loss, protect their accounts and make sure they know that you are on their side, always.