ScamCheck Family Circle
IDShield® Now Alerts Employees When a Parent or Child Encounters a Scam
ScamCheck Family Circle, a new IDShield feature from Trend Micro, launched on October 16. It allows the primary plan participant to receive real-time alerts when a high-risk scam targets a loved one.
Feature Article
The Scam No One Saw Coming
Americans 60 and older reported losing $7.7 billion to fraud in 20251, up 59 percent from the prior year and the highest total of any age group tracked by the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center. That number does not capture calls that went unreported or money quietly gone before anyone realized what happened. It captures the moment employees dread: a parent picks up a call from someone pretending to be a grandchild in distress, and the damage is done before anyone can intervene.
Identity theft protection plans were designed for one person to monitor their own accounts and alerts. They were never designed for that moment.
The Gap Family Circle Was Built to Close
ScamCheck Family Circle, which launched on October 16, changes what an employee can do when a loved one falls victim to a scam. Available to eligible IDShield® Family Plan participants whose plans include ScamCheck, it lets the primary participant invite up to 5 people to a shared circle of up to 6. When ScamCheck's AI detects a high-risk scam threat affecting anyone in the circle, the primary participant is alerted.
The alert covers scam risk only. The organizer cannot see private messages, browsing history, or personal files. Family Circle is separate from IDShield identity, credit, and dark-web monitoring, which covers the enrolled plan participant. It surfaces a single signal: someone in the circle may be walking into a scam right now, and the employee has a chance to reach out.
That distinction matters in a services conversation. Employees want to protect the people they care about; they do not want to monitor them. Family Circle is built for the first purpose and explicitly not the second.
What Changes in That Moment
People reported losing $3.5 billion to imposter scams in 20252, the most-reported fraud category of the year, per the FTC. Government impersonation scams alone accounted for about $920 million of those losses. Family emergency scams are evolving, too. The FBI reports that criminals now use AI voice cloning to mimic a loved one in distress, and victims reported more than $5 million in losses to these "distress" scams in 2025.1 They do not trigger a credit alert. They do not appear in a dark-web monitoring report. They happen in real time and move fast.
Family Circle gives employees a chance to intervene before the money moves. When ScamCheck detects a high-risk event for someone in the circle, such as calling a known scam number, replying to a scam text, or clicking a suspicious link, the primary participant receives an alert and can call that loved one to check in before any money changes hands.
A Talking Point for Open Enrollment
Financial stress from family fraud rarely stays at home. An employee dealing with a scam affecting a parent or adult child can bring that stress to work as a distraction, missed time, and anxiety. A service that helps employees protect the people they care about addresses something employers can see.
For brokers heading into open enrollment conversations, Family Circle offers a concrete example of how identity theft protection plans have evolved. The question for clients is no longer just whether the employee is protected. It is whether the people the employee worries about are, too.
1 FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, "2025 IC3 Annual Report," ic3.gov (2025).
2 Federal Trade Commission, "FTC Data Show People Reported Losing $3.5 Billion to Imposter Scams in 2025," ftc.gov (June 15, 2026).
Product Spotlight
IDShield® Family Plan with ScamCheck Family Circle
ScamCheck Family Circle from Trend Micro is now available to eligible IDShield® Family Plan participants whose plans include ScamCheck. The enrolled employee serves as the family admin and can invite up to five people, a parent, adult child, sibling, or any trusted person, into a circle of up to six. ScamCheck's AI monitors for high-risk scam behaviors: suspicious links, known scam numbers, scam text replies, and deepfake video calls. When a high-risk event occurs for anyone in the circle, the primary participant is alerted. Invited people in the Family Circle also have access to the robocall and SMS call blockers.
The alert is specific to scam risk. The organizer cannot see private messages, browsing history, or personal files; Family Circle does not activate the broader IDShield identity, credit, or dark-web monitoring that covers the enrolled plan participant. What it does is targeted: it signals that someone in the participant's circle may be encountering a scam, in time for the employee to intervene before harm is done.
For brokers, this is a concrete answer to a question clients increasingly ask: Does this service do anything for the people my employees are already worried about? Family Circle is a tangible yes, available through the same payroll-deduction structure and at no employer cost.
Ready to Bring ScamCheck Family Circle to Your Clients?
Reach out to your LegalShield Business Solutions representative or email [email protected] to get updated proposals, enrollment materials, and talking points.