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AI Scams in Naples: What to Watch For and How to Protect Your Family

By Zechariah Myrick · September 22, 2026 · 12 min read

Original illustrated concept board showing an idea card, a reviewable prototype, and an organized project workspace.
Original AI-generated illustration. It represents a fictional project, not client work.

AI has not invented new scams. It has made old ones more convincing. A scammer can now clone a grandchild’s voice from a short clip online, write a flawless email, or build a fake investment website in an afternoon. The good news is that the defenses have not changed: agree on a family code word, hang up and call the person back on a number you know, and never pay anyone in gift cards, cryptocurrency, or a wire transfer.

I wrote this for people in Naples and Collier County, and for the adult children who worry about their parents here. Naples has a median age of 67.3 and more than half of residents are 65 or older, according to Neilsberg, and scammers know that. This is not a scary guide. It is a calm one. I run a small AI studio in Naples, I am independent and not affiliated with OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, or Google, and I want to be clear up front: I do not do fraud recovery. If you have already lost money, the reporting steps at the end are where to go. This guide is to help you and your family avoid getting there.

A story about one question

Picture a woman in Naples, call her Ruth. Her phone rings at nine at night. It is her grandson’s voice, no question about it, and he is crying. A car accident. A lawyer. Bail. He begs her not to tell his mother. Ruth’s heart is pounding, and her hand is already reaching for her purse.

Then she does one thing. She says, “Honey, what is the dog’s name?” Silence. Three seconds of it. Then a click. She calls her grandson’s real number and he answers from his couch, watching a ballgame, dog in his lap.

Every scam in this guide, no matter how clever the technology, depends on you never asking one question. Ruth asked one. That is the whole lesson: fear rushes, love checks.

How big is the problem, really?

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, called IC3, publishes a yearly elder fraud report. In its 2023 report, people over 60 filed 101,068 complaints with reported losses topping $3.4 billion, an increase of almost 11% from the year before. The same report says tech support fraud was the most common crime type reported by people over 60, and investment scams were the costliest.

Those are national numbers, and they only count people who reported. The point is not to frighten you. It is that these are common, ordinary crimes, and ordinary habits stop most of them.

What does an AI voice cloning “family emergency” call sound like?

The phone rings. It sounds exactly like your grandson. He is crying, or scared. He has been in an accident, or arrested, or is stuck somewhere, and he needs money right now. Then a “lawyer” or “officer” gets on the line to explain how to pay. The Federal Trade Commission warned in 2023 that scammers use AI to clone a family member’s voice from a short audio clip found online, then call claiming the relative needs emergency money. The FTC’s advice is simple: do not trust the voice. Call the person who supposedly contacted you, using a number you know is theirs, and verify the story.

  • The tell-tale signs: urgency, a request to keep it secret from the rest of the family, and a demand for wire transfer, cryptocurrency, or gift cards.
  • The defense: hang up. Call your grandson, or his parents, on the number in your own phone. Nearly every one of these calls falls apart the moment you do.
  • The extra layer: a family code word. Pick a word or phrase only your family knows. Anyone claiming to be family in an emergency has to say it. The FTC recommends this too.
  • Ask a question only the real person could answer. The name of the dog, the street you lived on, what you ate last Thanksgiving. Remember Ruth.

What are fake AI investment pitches?

Picture a charter captain at the city dock who guarantees a full cooler on every trip. Not most trips. Every trip, in writing, or your money back. Any fisherman in Naples hears that and laughs, because nobody can promise the fish. The ocean does not sign contracts. The only person who guarantees a full cooler is a person who does not intend to take you fishing.

That is the AI investment pitch. It arrives as a text, an email, a social media ad, or a friendly stranger online. A new “AI trading bot” or “AI-powered” platform earns guaranteed returns, and you can watch your balance grow on their website. The balance is fake. The website is fake. When you try to withdraw, there is a “tax” or a “fee,” and then the money is gone.

AI makes these pitches more polished than they used to be. It does not make them more true. The IC3 report says investment scams are the costliest category for people over 60. Guaranteed returns do not exist. Anyone who says “AI” and “guaranteed” in the same sentence is selling something that is not real. I am not a financial advisor, and the rule here is simple: talk to a licensed one you found yourself, in person, before moving a dollar.

What does a fake tech support scam look like?

A pop-up appears on your computer saying it is infected and to call a number. Or someone calls claiming to be from Microsoft, Apple, your internet provider, or even an AI company, saying there is a problem with your account. They want remote access to your computer or a payment to “fix” it. The FTC is clear on two points. Legitimate tech companies will not contact you by phone, email, or text to tell you there is a problem with your computer. And real security warnings will never ask you to call a phone number.

  • If a pop-up tells you to call a number, do not call it. Close the browser. If it will not close, turn the computer off and on again.
  • If someone calls about your computer, hang up. If you are worried, call the company using the number on your bill or on their official website.
  • Never let a stranger who called you take remote control of your computer.
  • Nobody from ChatGPT, OpenAI, or any AI company will call you to upgrade, fix, or verify your account. If someone claims that, it is a scam.

How do romance scams use AI now?

Romance scams are patient. Someone attractive and kind appears on a dating site or social media, talks with you several times a day, and cannot meet in person because of overseas work, military service, or a job on an oil rig. AI now writes the messages, generates the photos, and can even fake a short video call. Then comes the ask: a medical emergency, a plane ticket, a visa fee.

The FTC notes that these scammers may even offer to help you get started in cryptocurrency investing. The FTC’s rule is plain: never send money or gifts to a sweetheart you have not met in person. A reverse image search of their photo, done with a friend or family member, often ends it quickly. Ask yourself one honest question: would a real person who cared about me ask me to keep this a secret from my children?

What are the simple habits that stop almost all of this?

  • Set up a family code word this week. Say it out loud at dinner. Write it on the fridge if you like. Everyone in the family knows it.
  • Hang up and call back. On any call involving money, fear, or urgency, say “I will call you back,” hang up, and call the real person or the real company on a number you already have.
  • Slow down. The FTC puts it this way: scammers want you to act before you have time to think. An honest person will let you sleep on it.
  • Never pay in gift cards, crypto, or wire. The FTC says never pay someone who insists you can only pay by cryptocurrency, wire transfer, payment app, or gift card. No government agency, tech company, or grandson’s lawyer takes gift cards.
  • Do not give personal or financial information in response to a request you did not expect. That is another FTC rule and it covers a lot of ground.
  • Tell someone. Before you send money to anyone new, tell a family member or friend. Scammers count on secrecy.
If you remember one thing: any call, email, or message that combines fear, urgency, secrecy, and an unusual way to pay is a scam. Every time. Hang up, breathe, and call someone you trust.

Tricks nobody tells you

  • Use AI to catch AI. Copy a suspicious email or text, remove your name and any account numbers, paste it into ChatGPT or Claude, and type “Is this a scam? List every warning sign you see.” It is very good at spotting the patterns, because it has read thousands of them.
  • Practice with a pretend scammer. Type “Pretend to be a scammer calling me about my grandson. I will practice hanging up. After, tell me what I did well.” Five minutes of practice makes the real call feel familiar instead of terrifying.
  • Write the callback script on a card. “I am going to hang up and call you back through the main number.” Tape it by the phone. When your heart is racing you will not remember the words. You will remember the card.
  • Let your phone screen unknown callers. Most phones have a setting to silence numbers not in your contacts and send them to voicemail. A real grandson leaves a message. A scammer usually does not. Ask a family member to turn it on for you.
  • Make the AI build your family’s safety card. Type “Make a printable card with: our family code word, the real phone numbers for my bank, my internet provider, my doctor, and one family member, and the sentence I say to any caller who wants money.” Fill in the blanks by hand. Print two.
  • Ask what it is not sure about. If you ask an AI tool whether a company or investment is real, follow up with “What are you not sure about, and how would I check that myself?” It keeps you from trusting a confident guess.
  • The 24-hour rule for anything new. Any first-time request for money gets one night of sleep. Say it out loud to the caller. Honest people say “of course.” Scammers argue.
  • Argue the other side. Before any unusual money decision, type “Argue as strongly as you can that I should not do this.” If you cannot answer its arguments, you have your answer.

Try this in ten minutes

This ends with a real card by your phone, which is the single most useful object in this whole guide.

  • Call one family member and agree on a code word. Something ordinary, nothing you have posted online. Say it twice.
  • Open any free AI chat tool. Type: “Make a printable card, big letters, with blanks for: family code word, bank phone number, internet provider number, doctor’s office number, one family member’s number. At the top put: I will hang up and call you back.”
  • Print it, or copy the layout onto an index card by hand.
  • Fill in the real numbers from your bills and your own contacts, not from any email or pop-up.
  • Tape it next to the phone or on the fridge. Take a photo and send it to the family member so they know it exists.
  • Optional, if you have three minutes left: paste an old junk email into the chat with your details removed and ask “Is this a scam? Why?” Watch how it explains it. Now you know the tells.

How can I protect my parents in Naples from a distance?

  • Have the code word conversation. It takes five minutes and it is not insulting. Frame it as protecting the whole family, including the grandkids whose voices are online.
  • Agree on a rule together: “If anyone asks you for money in a hurry, you call me first, no matter what they say.”
  • Look at their computer together and turn on the browser’s pop-up blocker. Show them what a fake “virus” warning looks like so it is not shocking the first time.
  • Put the real numbers for their bank, their internet provider, and their doctor on a card by the phone. Verifying is easier when the right number is within reach.
  • Do the pretend-scammer practice with them on a video call. Laughing through it once takes the fear out of it.
  • Talk about it without shame. People who feel foolish do not report, and not reporting protects the scammer.

Where do I report a scam?

  • Federal Trade Commission: ReportFraud.ftc.gov. This is where the FTC asks you to report scams, including attempted ones.
  • FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center: ic3.gov. The FBI encourages reporting any fraud or scam, even attempted fraud, as soon as possible. Do not be embarrassed. The report itself helps them spot patterns.
  • Your local sheriff’s office. In Naples that is the Collier County Sheriff’s Office. Use their non-emergency number for a scam that has already happened, and 911 only if you are in immediate danger.
  • Your bank or card company. If any money moved, call them immediately. Speed matters.
  • Change your passwords if you gave anyone access to your computer or accounts, and have a trusted person help you check the machine.

What I would do first

  • Today: Choose a family code word and tell every family member who might get a call.
  • This week: Do the ten-minute card exercise above. Practice saying “I will call you back.”
  • This month: Sit with a parent or friend and walk through what a fake pop-up and a fake “grandchild” call look like. Knowing the script ahead of time is most of the protection.

When to call someone

Picture two neighbors who each got the same fake “virus” pop-up on the same Tuesday. One was embarrassed, said nothing, and kept the computer in a closet for a month. The other told her daughter that night, laughed about it at bridge on Thursday, and three women at the table said, “I got that one too.” Which house is safer now? The one where the lamp is on the table instead of under a basket. A scam told out loud loses most of its power.

If you have already been scammed, call your bank first, then report to the FTC and IC3, then your local sheriff’s office. I do not do fraud recovery and I would be doing you a disservice to pretend otherwise. Where I can help is on the front end. If you are starting to use AI tools and want them set up safely on your own devices, with privacy settings explained and a plain talk about what never to type into them, that is a normal one-on-one session.

I work by phone, video, or in person in Naples, and I will never ask for your passwords, and neither should anyone else. Call (239) 544-6990 or send me a note. For safe first steps, read AI help in Naples: where to start and ChatGPT for beginners.

Sources and local context

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