The phone call no one wants to get
Your parent calls you, voice shaking. They clicked a link in an email that looked like it was from their bank. They entered their password. Now they're not sure what happened, but something doesn't feel right.
This scenario plays out thousands of times every day, in every country around the world. Online scams have become one of the most common forms of crime — and they target the people we love most.
The scams your family needs to know about
Online scammers are creative, persistent, and constantly evolving their tactics. Here are the most common types targeting families right now.
Phishing emails and messages
These are messages designed to look like they come from trusted organisations — your bank, a government agency, a shipping company, or a popular online service. They typically create a sense of urgency: "Your account has been compromised," "Your package couldn't be delivered," or "You need to verify your identity immediately."
The goal is always the same: to trick you into clicking a link that leads to a fake website, where you'll be asked to enter sensitive information like passwords, credit card numbers, or personal details.
How to spot them: Look for generic greetings ("Dear Customer" instead of your name), urgent language designed to create panic, and suspicious sender addresses. When in doubt, go directly to the organisation's website by typing the address yourself — never click the link in the message.
Tech support scams
"Your computer has been infected with a virus!" These pop-ups or phone calls claim to be from well-known technology companies. They try to convince you that your computer is at risk and that you need to call a number, install software, or pay for "protection" immediately.
These are particularly effective against elderly family members who may be less confident with technology and more likely to trust an official-sounding warning.
Romance and friendship scams
Scammers on dating sites and social media build relationships over weeks or months, creating emotional connections with their targets. Once trust is established, they ask for money — for medical emergencies, travel costs, or business opportunities that don't exist.
These scams can be devastating, both financially and emotionally.
Fake online stores
Websites that look like legitimate online shops, often offering popular products at impossibly low prices. They accept payment, but the products never arrive — or what does arrive is nothing like what was advertised. These sites are often promoted through social media ads and can look very professional.
SMS and text scams
Short messages claiming a package is waiting, a toll needs to be paid, or an account needs attention. They contain a link to a fraudulent website designed to capture personal information. The brevity and informality of text messages makes these especially hard to question.
Who is most at risk?
While anyone can fall for a well-crafted scam, some people are more vulnerable.
Elderly family members may be less familiar with online threats, more trusting of official-sounding communications, and less confident in their ability to distinguish real from fake. They may also be more isolated, making them targets for romance and friendship scams.
Children and teenagers are naturally trusting and may not have developed the scepticism needed to spot scams. They're especially vulnerable to scams on gaming platforms, social media, and messaging apps.
Anyone who's busy, tired, or distracted — which is all of us, at some point. Scammers deliberately create urgency because rushed decisions are poor decisions.
Practical steps to help protect your family
Teach the red flags
Help your family members recognise the warning signs:
- Urgency: "Act now or your account will be closed"
- Too good to be true: Prices that are dramatically lower than everywhere else
- Requests for unusual payment: Gift cards, cryptocurrency, or wire transfers
- Generic greetings: "Dear Customer" or "Dear User"
- Suspicious links: Hover over links before clicking to see where they really go
- Emotional manipulation: Stories designed to make you feel sorry, scared, or excited
Set up two-factor authentication
Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on all important accounts — email, banking, social media. This means that even if a password is compromised, the attacker still can't access the account without a second verification step.
Have regular conversations
Don't just have "the talk" once. Make online safety a regular topic of conversation. Share articles about new scams, discuss examples you've seen, and create an environment where family members feel comfortable asking for help without feeling embarrassed.
Create a family verification system
Agree on a simple rule: if anyone receives a message asking for money, personal information, or urgent action, they'll verify it through a different channel before responding. Call the organisation directly using a number from their official website — not the number in the message.
Set up quiet background protection
Sometimes the best protection is the kind you don't have to think about. For family members who might click a suspicious link despite knowing the warning signs — which honestly includes all of us sometimes — having a safety net in place can make the difference.
A quiet safety net for your family
Alpaca is designed to help catch known scam and phishing sites before they even load. When someone in your family clicks a link in a suspicious email, Alpaca may help prevent the fraudulent website from appearing. The connection is quietly checked against regularly updated lists of known threats, and if a match is found, the harmful content is designed to be stopped before it can do damage.
This is especially valuable for elderly family members. You can set up Alpaca on their Mac in under a minute, and it works invisibly from that point on. No settings to adjust, no decisions to make, no technical knowledge required. Just quiet protection running in the background.
And because Alpaca processes everything locally on the Mac, you're not trading privacy for protection. No browsing data is collected, stored, or sent anywhere.
Setting up protection for a family member: Download Alpaca on their Mac, run through the simple one-time setup, and you're done. They won't need to do anything else — it works automatically across all their browsers and apps.
What to do if someone falls for a scam
Even with precautions, scams can still succeed. If a family member thinks they may have been scammed:
- Don't panic — but do act quickly
- Change passwords immediately for any accounts that may be compromised
- Contact your bank if financial information was shared
- Report the scam to your local authorities and relevant online platforms
- Support them emotionally — shame and embarrassment are common reactions, but they need support, not judgement
Reporting scams by country
- Australia: Scamwatch (ACCC) and ReportCyber
- United States: FTC Report Fraud and IC3
- United Kingdom: Action Fraud
- European Union: Contact your national consumer protection authority
- New Zealand: Netsafe