If a suspected AI voice clone scam call just happened in your family, the next hour is where almost everything that can be done, gets done. This is a plain-English first-hour guide: what the family does, in what order, on numbers you already have. Print it. Tape it next to the phone.
First five minutes: hang up and call back
End the call. The FTC's plain-English guidance on imposter scams is consistent on this point: if the conversation has shifted to urgent money and a payment in an unusual form, hang up first and verify second (consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-avoid-scam).
Then call the real person back on a number you already have in your phone — not a number the caller gave you, not a number that appeared on the screen during the call. Caller ID can be spoofed; the FCC's consumer guide on caller-ID spoofing is clear that an inbound number is not a positive identification (fcc.gov/consumers/guides/spoofing-and-caller-id).
While the phone is still in your hand, write down the time of the call, the number that showed on the screen, and the gist of what was said. Those three pieces of information are what the FTC and FBI complaint systems will ask for later.
First thirty minutes: stop the money
If the loved one picks up on the callback and is safe, the call was an AI voice clone scam and you can breathe. If money has already moved, the next call is to your bank's fraud line — the number on the back of the card, not a number you search for online. Bank time is the dominant constraint: wire transfers, instant peer-to-peer payments, and cryptocurrency exchanges all have very short windows during which a reversal is plausible. The FTC's official guidance on what to do if you were scammed walks through how to contact each payment provider depending on how the money moved (consumer.ftc.gov/articles/what-do-if-you-were-scammed).
If a bank dispute does not resolve directly, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau complaint system is the right second stop. If the payment used the U.S. mail or a courier, file with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service while it is fresh.
Bank time is the dominant constraint. Call the bank first; file the federal reports second.
First hour: tell the rest of the family
Text or call every other immediate family member with the time of the call, the number on the screen, and what was said. The point is not blame. The point is that the criminal has the family's contact details and is likely working the rest of the household next — the AARP Fraud Watch Network has documented the same number being used across siblings, in-laws, and grandparents within the same afternoon (aarp.org/money/scams-fraud). The faster the rest of the family knows, the faster the next call gets shut down.
Tell one trusted neighbor too. AARP's fraud helpline (1-877-908-3360, staffed by trained volunteers) is worth saving on the same call — they have heard the same story many times and will talk a family member through the next step without judgment (aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/helpline).
First day: file the federal reports
File a report at reportfraud.ftc.gov. The FTC's Consumer Sentinel Network feeds federal and state investigators and is the single best disrupt-the-next-call lever an ordinary family has — the agency's 2023 Sentinel Data Book tallied more than 850,000 imposter reports and $2.7 billion in losses, and the disruption work is built off that pipeline.
File a second report at ic3.gov, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center. The data routes to a different set of investigators and is worth the ten minutes. The FBI's 2023 Elder Fraud Report recorded $3.4 billion in reported losses from victims age 60 and over — every report sharpens the picture.
If the household is older or the targeted relative is a parent or grandparent, add a call to AARP's Fraud Watch Helpline. The HHS Office of Inspector General also publishes consumer alerts with steady, plain-English guidance for older adults and the people who help them.
None of these reports recovers money on its own. All of them increase the chance the criminal's number, payment account, or mule is disrupted before the next call lands.
First week: brief everyone, change what was compromised
If a small detail only the family should know — a nickname, a pet's name, a back-porch in-joke — came up in the call, change it. Pick a new one together at the kitchen table and write it on a fresh index card on the fridge. Anything that has been said in front of the wrong person is no longer private.
Walk through the kitchen-table conversation again with anyone who was not present the first time — a sibling in another city, a grandparent who lives alone, a caregiver who answers the phone during the day. Show them the printed checklist. Show them where the hotline number — the one that rings the family members you chose — is written down.
If the household does not yet have a small physical kit you tap and a private hotline that rings the family members you choose, this is the week to set that up. The next suspected call is then much shorter: the parent asks the question your family agreed on, the line goes silent, the parent hangs up and calls back on a number they already have. That is the end of the story.
Where to go next
The Resources library has this first-hour guide as a printable PDF, along with the fridge card template and audio samples of synthetic voices you can listen to before a real call comes. For the kitchen-table conversation that sets up the question your family agrees on, see the guide. For the listening signals that flag an AI voice clone scam in the first ten seconds, see our explainer. When you are ready, the kit is $59 with free US shipping; it ships with the hotline live the day it arrives.
