A family safe word is one word or short phrase that your family agrees in advance and asks for whenever a call or message wants money, a code or urgent help. If the person cannot say it, you hang up and call them back on a number you already have.
The short answer. A family safe word is one word only your family knows. Ask for it when a call or message wants money, a code or urgent help, and if it is missing or wrong, hang up and call back on a number you already have.
Last reviewed 4 October 2026. Based on advice from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Federal Trade Commission. The steps work in any country.
Why families use one
A voice on the phone can be copied from a short clip that someone has posted online. The Federal Trade Commission warned about this on 20 March 2023, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (the place where people in the United States report internet crime) repeated the advice in a public notice on 3 December 2024: create a secret word or phrase with your family to verify their identity. A safe word gives you a question to ask that does not depend on how someone sounds.
How to make one
- Choose a word nobody could guess. A random word is harder to guess than a pet name, a birthday or anything a stranger could find on social media. Family Safe Word picks one on your own phone or computer and saves nothing.
- Agree it in person, or on a call you started. Say it out loud. Do not send it in a text, an email or a chat, because anyone who reads the message then has the word.
- Tell everyone who might be asked for money, including parents, grandparents, older relatives and anyone who looks after the family’s accounts.
- Write it down somewhere your family can find it, such as a card on the fridge or in a wallet. Forgetting the word is common, and a card means nobody has to remember.
How to use it
Ask for the word whenever a call or message asks for money, a code or private details in a hurry, even when the voice or the message looks right. If there is no word, or the wrong word, hang up and call the person back on a number you already hold, not one the caller gave you.
If the word has been shared by mistake
If anyone typed the word into a message, said it to someone you do not know, or posted it, choose a new one and tell the family in person. Changing it is part of using it.
What a safe word does not do
A safe word is one extra check. It sits beside calling back and does not replace it. It also depends on the family having agreed a word before it is needed, because there is nothing to ask for otherwise.
At work
The same idea works for a team. If a colleague, a supplier or a manager asks by message or phone to change bank details or to pay quickly, confirm by calling them on a number you already hold. Check first at work sets this out as a shared routine.
Sources
- Federal Bureau of Investigation Internet Crime Complaint Center public service announcement, 3 December 2024: criminals use generative artificial intelligence to facilitate financial fraud
- The Federal Trade Commission consumer alert, 20 March 2023: scammers use artificial intelligence to enhance their family emergency schemes
Watch: the short video
Related guides
Free
Make the word.
Print the card.
Family Safe Word runs on your own phone or computer. What you choose stays on your device.