How To Protect Your Grandparents From Scams
Help grandparents stay safe from grandparent, impersonation, and romance scams.
Last reviewed: 1 June 2026
'Grandparent scams' impersonate a grandchild in trouble — arrested, in an accident, or stranded — to trigger urgent, secret payments, while other scams target loneliness, politeness, and trust built over a lifetime. If you're worried about a grandparent, you don't need to frighten them or take over their affairs. A calm conversation about how these calls work, a family safe word, and one simple habit — hang up and call back on a known number — block almost every version of this scam. The steps below help you set that up together.
The grandparent scam
In this scam, a caller claims to be a grandchild — or sometimes a police officer or lawyer speaking on the grandchild's behalf — who has been arrested, been in a car accident, or is stranded abroad and needs money sent immediately. The caller insists on secrecy, often saying 'please don't tell mum and dad, I'm so embarrassed,' which stops the grandparent from checking the story with anyone who could spot it as false. Payment is usually demanded through gift cards, wire transfers, or a courier collecting cash, all of which are hard to reverse. The combination of urgency, secrecy, and a distressed 'family member's voice' is designed to bypass calm thinking entirely.
- The 'grandchild' may sound distressed or claim a bad connection
- AI voice cloning can make the voice sound real
- Payment is demanded fast, often by gift card or transfer
Simple protections
A small number of habits stop almost every version of the grandparent scam. Agree in advance that no family member will ever ask for money to be sent by gift card, wire transfer, or courier — full stop — so any such request is instantly recognisable as fake. Encourage your grandparent to hang up and call the grandchild directly on a known number whenever a call like this comes in, rather than the number the caller provides. Setting up a family safe word that a genuine relative could supply in an emergency adds another layer. Practising the response out loud — 'I'm going to hang up and call you back' — makes it far easier to use under pressure.
- Agree a family safe word to confirm identity
- Always hang up and call the family member on their known number
- Never send money or gift cards based on an urgent call alone
If money has already been sent
If a grandparent realises they have already paid a scammer, speed matters far more than working out how it happened. Call their bank's fraud line immediately on the number from the back of their card and ask the bank to attempt a recall of any transfer and to watch the account for further attempts. If gift cards were bought, contact the card issuer with the card numbers and receipts, because unused balances can sometimes be frozen. If cash was handed to a courier or posted, report it to the police straight away and give any descriptions or tracking details. Then reassure them, clearly and more than once, that this was a professional crime and not a personal failure. Scammers often call the same person again, sometimes posing as investigators who can recover the money, so agree that any follow-up call about the incident gets checked with you first.
- Call the bank's fraud line straight away to attempt a recall
- Report gift-card payments to the card issuer with receipts
- Report courier or cash handovers to the police immediately
- Save call logs, numbers, and receipts as evidence
- Warn them about follow-up 'money recovery' calls — it's the same scammers
Conversation script
“Grandma, there's a scam where someone pretends to be me and says I'm in trouble and need money fast.”
“If you ever get a call like that, please hang up and call me on my normal number first.”
“Let's pick a family safe word so you can always check it's really me.”
Frequently asked questions
What if the voice really sounds like my grandchild?
AI can clone voices from short clips. That's exactly why a family safe word and calling back on a known number matter — they verify identity even when the voice sounds right.