As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly check for financial scams targeting your parent.

What to actually do

1. Use a tool built for this

   The route this page recommends

2. Do it yourself

   Second choice

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Ask your parent for permission to help, then record how the contact arrived, what the sender claimed to be, what was requested and whether any money, password or security code was shared.
   2. Save screenshots or a written call summary, and remove names, addresses, account numbers, passwords, one-time codes, card details and other unnecessary personal data.
   3. Paste the redacted material and the context into a chatbot using the supplied prompt, then copy its warning signs, missing facts and suggested actions into a separate note.
   4. Compare each suggested action with your bank's official app, card, statement or website, and do not use a phone number, link or email address supplied in the suspicious contact.
   5. If money or account access may be involved, contact the bank's fraud team immediately through that independent route and follow its instructions before replying to anyone.
   6. Open GOV.UK's scam and fraud guidance to check reporting options, and report the contact through the relevant official channel after preserving the evidence.

   Prompt

   Act as a scam-screening assistant for a UK family member. Do not make a definitive claim that something is genuine or fraudulent, and do not give regulated financial advice. Analyse the redacted message or call summary below for warning signs such as urgency, requests for secrecy, unusual payment methods, requests for passwords or one-time codes, remote access, impersonation, or pressure to move money.
   
   Return:
   1. A short neutral summary of what the sender is asking for.
   2. A table with each warning sign, the exact evidence from the text, and how serious the sign is.
   3. Facts that are still missing and questions I can ask my parent without blaming them.
   4. Safe actions in priority order, including stopping contact, not clicking links, not sharing codes or passwords, and contacting the bank using a number from an official bank card, statement or app rather than the message.
   5. What I can verify independently through GOV.UK, the bank or another official source.
   6. What should be escalated immediately to the bank's fraud team or the police.
   
   Keep the tone calm and suitable for speaking with an older parent. Protect privacy: tell me to remove names, addresses, account numbers, passwords, codes and full payment details before analysis. If money or credentials have already been sent, put contacting the bank through an independent official route first. Do not contact the suspected sender on my behalf.
   
   Context: [how the contact arrived, what happened, and whether money or information was sent]
   Message or call summary: [paste only redacted text or a summary here]

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.

3. Hand it to a person

   The distant third

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.