UtilForge.org is a digital inclusion organisation offering free cybersecurity and online safety tools and guides. A 2026 Champion of Cybersecurity Awareness Month. What you check stays on your phone or computer.

For families

Keep the whole family a step ahead of scams.

For parents, grandparents and everyone who shares a home, a bank card or a family group chat. Free checks that run on your own phone or computer, a family safe word, and a pack you can keep on every device at home.

See the free toolsWho it’s for: every guide

Who this is for

Families come in every shape: a couple sharing one bank account, grandparents who video-call relatives abroad, adult brothers and sisters looking out for each other, a household where several phones pay for apps with the same card. Scams reach families through the same few doors: a call, a text, a shop, a payment that keeps coming out. This guide sets out each door and the free check that closes it.

The risks you meet most, and the check for each.

  1. A call or voice message from a relative in trouble

    The voice sounds right, the story is urgent, and the request is for money now. Hang up and call back on a number you already have, or ask for the word only your family knows.

    The Federal Trade Commission, the United States consumer protection agency, warned on 20 March 2023 that scammers can use artificial intelligence to copy a family member’s voice from a short clip found online.

    Source: The Federal Trade Commission consumer alert, scammers use artificial intelligence to enhance their family emergency schemes, 20 March 2023

    The check: make a family safe word and print the card.

  2. A parcel or toll text with a link

    A small fee to release a parcel, or an unpaid toll, with a link to pay. Track the parcel in the retailer’s own app instead.

    Fake package delivery texts were the most reported text scam of 2024 in the United States, in a year when people reported US$470 million lost to text scams overall (Federal Trade Commission, 14 April 2025).

    Source: Federal Trade Commission, top text scams of 2024, 14 April 2025

    The check: see whether the link belongs to the company it names.

  3. A bargain that starts on social media

    An advert in a feed leads to a shop nobody in the family has used before. Check the shop’s address and pay by card, so the payment can be challenged.

    People in the United States reported US$2.1 billion lost in 2025 to scams that started on social media, and more than 40% of those who lost money had ordered from an advert (Federal Trade Commission, 27 April 2026).

    Source: Federal Trade Commission, new data on social media scam losses, 27 April 2026

    The check: Shop check and Before You Pay.

  4. A request to pay in gift cards

    A caller from “the tax office”, “technical support” or a relative asks for gift cards and the numbers on the back. Gift cards are for gifts, never for bills, fines or emergencies.

    In Federal Trade Commission data for 2024, gift cards were the payment method reported most often for government impersonation, technical support, romance and family impersonation scams (Federal Trade Commission, December 2025).

    Source: Federal Trade Commission, Protecting Older Consumers report, December 2025 (2024 data)

    The check: Gift card request check.

  5. Small charges that keep coming out

    A quiz, a game or a “free” trial asks for a card, and a small first payment turns into a weekly or monthly charge. UtilForge.org began in a family where exactly this happened.

    The check: Subscription Check lists every repeating payment on a statement.

  6. Shared accounts and reused passwords

    One password for the family streaming, shopping and email accounts means one leak opens all of them. Turn on two-step login for the accounts that hold money or email.

    Online retail account takeovers rose 84% in the United Kingdom from January to June 2026 (Cifas, the United Kingdom fraud prevention service, August 2026).

    Source: Cifas, the United Kingdom fraud prevention service, Fraudscape 2026 six-month update, August 2026

    The check: Password Habits Check.

The free tools that fit.

Every one is free, runs on your own phone or computer, and keeps working with the internet off once the page has loaded.

Guides to read next.

What the tools cannot do.

  • A safe word cannot stop a voice or a message being faked. It only works if everyone remembers it and keeps it private.
  • A check with no warnings is not a guarantee. A scam in new wording can show none of the signs the tools look for.
  • No tool can get money back. If money has gone, call the bank or card company first, on the number on the card.

The pack that fits

Family Safety Tools. Pay what you want.

Family Safety Tools

From $0

Pay what you want, including nothing · every device in your household

Fifteen tools kept as one folder on your own phones and computers, sorted by need, working with the internet off, with a one-page family guide for the fridge. Twelve months of updates and a fourteen-day refund.

See Family Safety Tools

Prices are in United States dollars, paid once, with no subscription. Gumroad, the shop that handles payment, shows the total, including any tax, before you pay. Whatever you pay helps keep every UtilForge tool free.

Sources and dates.

Facts on this page were checked against these sources on 24 October 2026. Reported losses count only what people reported, so real harm is larger.