And if she got a desperate, pleading call from "you" and "you" claim you can't remember the passphrase, then what?

These scams are imaginary. Yes they have probably happened but it's far more likely that your mother will get scammed by a "legitimate" financial advisor than some stranger using an AI to impersonate you.

The scams that people don't even know they are getting scammed on - GenZ has the one of the highest scam rates, but the dollar amount per scam is way low and they often dont even know they were scammed. Also, the political donation scams where the people "think" they are giving to a party or candidate but nope, just a PAC that spends all the money its collects on "operations" and "consulting fees" to its partners. Wild times.

This.

Then it failed. Things fail. It's ok. Especially if it's cheap.

And no need for AI. I already had family members getting scammed by facebook or mail impersonation.

But at some point, the capability for AI is going to get so cheap it will be mass-produced by bots from millions of identities like SMS or email scams.

It's not an "if". It's a "when".

I'd rather have my mother at least have the reflex to try to send me a message if I can't remember the passphrase to check if it's indeed me.

And if it doesn't, work, it doesn't. I'm not working for a 3 letters agency and my mum is an old tech illiterate lady. There is a limit.