Help and resources

Where to actually go.

A short list of places that will help you for free, with a real person on the other end. Checked, not collected.

We didn't gather every link about AI. Most of those pages help nobody. These are the ones we'd send a family member to — government hotlines, trained fraud specialists, and classes built for people who are new to this.

If money has already gone out, act now, not tomorrow.

Call your bank first and ask them to stop or reverse the payment. Then call one of the helplines below. Speed matters more than getting the order right, and nobody there will make you feel foolish — it is the most common call they take.

Talk to a real person

Free, staffed by people trained for exactly this. You don't need to be a member of anything.

AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline Trained fraud specialists who talk you through what happened and what to do next. Free and open to anyone — you do not have to be an AARP member. 877-908-3360 Monday to Friday, 8am–8pm ET National Elder Fraud Hotline — U.S. Department of Justice For anyone 60 or older who has been targeted. A case manager stays with you through reporting it at federal, state and local level, rather than handing you a form. 833-372-8311 Seven days a week, 6am–11pm ET · English, Spanish and other languages

Report it

Reporting feels pointless. It isn't — it's how patterns get spotted and how some money gets recovered.

ReportFraud.ftc.gov The Federal Trade Commission's reporting site. You get a tracking number and a tailored list of next steps based on what happened. 877-382-4357 IdentityTheft.gov If someone has your personal information, start here. It builds you a recovery plan and writes the letters you need to send. 877-438-4338 Social Security Administration — Office of the Inspector General For calls or messages claiming to be from Social Security. Worth knowing: the real Social Security Administration does not call out of the blue asking for your number. 800-269-0271

Learn AI at your own pace

Free classes made for people who are starting from zero. No jargon, no assumption you already know.

Senior Planet from AARP — AI classes Free live online classes on what AI actually is, how to spot it in daily life, and how to recognize deepfakes and cloned voices. Built for people over 50 and taught at a human pace. The best free starting point we've found. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — Resources for Older Adults Plain-language guides on money scams, written by a government agency with no product to sell you. Useful for a caregiver or family member too.

Understand what changed

If you want the picture rather than the panic.

AARP: AI makes it next to impossible to detect scams Researchers analysing more than half a million fraud reports found that scams victims identified as AI-enabled — realistic voices, convincing video — rose twentyfold between 2023 and 2025. This is the clearest explanation we've read of why the old advice stopped working.

We have no relationship with any organization on this page and receive nothing for listing them. They're here because we checked them and would send our own families to them. If something here is out of date or unhelpful, tell us and we'll fix it.