And this is just the beginning. Deep fakes are a real thing, and not just to steal money (instigating international hostilities?).

My sons and I have decided we need to come up with excellent secret identifying passwords so if any one of us is targeted for ransom by someone "Deep Faking" the identity of another family member, we will know the family member is safe by whether or not the Deep Faker knows that special IDentifying factoid.

(One of many such AI generated scams, was this picture perfect vocal impersonation of the daughter of a distraught mother, of whom a million $ ransom was demanded or forfeit her daughter's life. By luck and family cooperation, the crime was aborted.)

Another Deep Fake ransom attempt

https://www.news8000.com/news/...2-45344d7a6b25.html).

And this article recounts how a British CEO was scammed out of 220K Brit lb by a "Deep Fake" of his German boss demanding it. It's only going to get more authentic with time with ever more pernicious applications.

My son sent me this link on April 1st and at first I assumed it was an April Fools Joke, especially when I got to the part about the British CEO.

AI scamming methods, cheated UK executive out of 220 UK lbs

The family password is a good idea.

Failing that, if you are in the situation where someone calls to say that they've kidnapped your kid, grandmother, or someone, you can ask for a piece of information that only that person would know, like "what color are your bedroom walls?"

The family password is a good idea, as long as I'm successful in suppressing the idea that we're giving our entire family a safe word....

Also a good idea is the question that only someone familiar with you would know. The name of your favorite stuffed animal as a kid? I'm trying to think of questions that have more than a small handful of highly likely options. Color of bedroom walls seems like it would generate a short list of candidates. Leading the charge: Navajo White! (*snort*)

Obviously I'm overthinking this.

Just realizing that the (account owner's) voice recognition security measure at Charles Schwab and others had better get savvy to this new thing and fast.

I have always thought voice recognition by phone was a terrific protection - one reason I banked online there. Not so, it turns out! Trying to think of a new security measure for there and elsewhere. It sure could scam me and others banking at Schwab (and at other online banks) out of a humongous amount of dough.
Terrifying!

Come on, online brokerages, resolve this account holders' vulnerability lickety split!!

Retinal ID? fingerprints? face IDs? They've already been used but there must be ways to get around them via AI (no wonder they're not used much any more).

What about DNA sequencing? It would be expensive and complicated but the payoff could be so lucrative for robbing very rich account holders, I'm sure scientific scammers would be willing to go to the trouble. I'm such a technoklutz I already struggle to link accounts via that two mini deposit security methods (but I'm sure scammers are much better at it than me - otherwise, that seems pretty clever).

In my rural area, I'm certainly not near any branches of major banks which would be an alternative protection - depositing and/or withdrawing in person.