What to do when the scammer sounds like your son? The development that will protect the elderly from AI scams
Scammers are using AI to clone the voices of family members to convince the elderly to transfer money to them. After scammers tried to target his partner's father, entrepreneur Yaron Shemesh developed an app that attempts to combat the phenomenon.
The phenomenon of the "Russian scam," aimed at Russian-speaking elderly people in Israel, has become a well-oiled and very common fraud network. Every week, new testimonies are published in dedicated Facebook groups about parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents who have fallen victim to the cruel scam in a single phone call.
Sometimes, the impersonator on the other side presents themselves as a bank representative or an authorized official, and sometimes artificial intelligence technology is even used to impersonate family members — by "cloning" their voices using various technological means. And as the fraud methods become more sophisticated, the ability of the elderly and their family members to prevent the next scam becomes significantly lower.
When the issue personally touched Yaron Shemesh, an entrepreneur and CEO of the data accessibility startup Simpler Story, he decided to take action. After scammers tried to scam his partner's father, Shemesh developed an app aimed at reducing the phenomenon and providing a response to fraud. Although the app is currently in its early stages, it is already generating a lot of interest.
"85-year-olds, Holocaust survivors, lost all their money"
In 2024, more than 100 million shekels were stolen from the elderly in Israel. Knesset data shows that in 2025, 2,655 cases were opened for fraud offenses against elderly immigrants from the former Soviet Union — almost twice the volume of the previous year. The increasing sophistication of the scammers is what fuels the sharp jump in the number of victims.
One of these cases emerges from a post published by Bella on social networks, in which she documented how her grandparents fell victim to a scam. "Yesterday I learned from my grandmother that she and my grandfather fell for a scam against Russian-speaking elderly people," she wrote. "They are a couple of 85-year-olds, grandfather is a Holocaust survivor. Grandmother transferred all their cash that they had saved all their lives down to the last shekel — 150 thousand shekels, along with bank account details."
How does the TavKey app work?
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The Scam: Scammers clone the family member's voice using AI.
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Verification: The elderly person requests the TavKey code.
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Prevention: The app displays an encrypted and changing family code — and the impersonator is exposed.
Bella later described the sophisticated method of operation: "Someone called who introduced herself as 'Rachel from the bank,' said she found a state procedure during wartime according to which everyone is required to give cash in case a missile falls on the house. At the same time, Rachel let my grandmother talk to my uncle, supposedly, they took and faked his voice saying he approves."
A simple solution to a complex problem
When Yaron Shemesh (34), a high-tech entrepreneur, was exposed to the phenomenon — first in a personal case and then in hundreds of other stories — he began to look with his partner for a way to prevent the next scam. "We tried to think of a simple and accessible solution," he explains. Shemesh recalls that transferring a large sum of money at the bank requires two-step verification, and from there the idea grew. "I thought why not have such a mechanism, only for families? And then we decided to go for it." Thus was born the TavKey app, which is supposed to provide a protective shell for the elderly and tools for their family members in dealing with scams resulting from impersonation.
The app is installed on family members' devices and displays a shared secret code that changes every minute. Communication between devices is encrypted, as is the code itself. "If a suspicious call is received, you can ask 'What is your TavKey?'. Family members will know how to answer, while impersonators will not," explains Shemesh. The use of the app is completely free and anonymous, does not require registration or sending private information, works even without an internet connection, and is adapted for people aged 65 and over.
The difficulty in enforcement — and the responsibility of credit card companies
In terms of enforcement, authorities encounter difficulties in catching the criminals. They change phones frequently, use disposable numbers, and exploit the lack of security cameras at cash collection points. Despite the sophistication, the police and the State Attorney's Office manage to bring indictments in some cases. Last June, for example, an indictment was filed against a 31-year-old who was a member of a fraud network that targeted Russian-speaking elderly people and converted the scam money into gold worth half a million shekels.
The fight against the phenomenon is also moving to the civil level. Last February, the Supreme Court accepted a minority opinion in an appeal in a class action lawsuit against credit card companies Isracard, CAL, and Max, arguing that they did not take sufficient steps to prevent and thwart the "exploitation of the elderly." The Supreme Court ordered the procedure to be returned to the District Court, where the lawsuit was amended and is expected to continue to be heard.
