No. There is no battery. The chip inside is powered by the tap itself: when your parent holds the card to a phone, the phone's NFC reader provides enough power for the card to send a one-time signal. The card sits in a wallet for years and works whenever you tap.

No. No battery, ever. Nothing to swap, recharge, or replace. This is on purpose, because a dead battery is one more thing for your parent to troubleshoot.

The card itself does not. The phone doing the tap does need cell or wifi service, because the callback travels over the phone network. If your parent's phone can make a regular call, the tap works.

Yes. We test for it. The chip is paper-thin and sealed; the printed surface is matte coated. It survives a normal wash and dry. It does not survive being run over by a truck or set on fire, but neither would a credit card.

The same as a standard credit card, 0.76mm. It fits in any wallet sleeve. The magnet is about 2mm thick, sized to fit on a fridge next to a calendar.

Most phone cases, yes. The exception is thick wallet cases that include a metal plate, which can block the NFC signal. If you have one of those, either take the phone out of the case for the tap or, easier, use the fridge magnet instead.

No. Each card has a one-of-a-kind chip with a signature only our system can verify. A blank chip bought online will not produce a callback from us. Only registered, signed cards do.

Email us and we will mail a replacement for $9 to cover the chip and shipping. The lost card cannot be activated by anyone else because it never reveals your inside story (the cues are blank until you write them, in your handwriting).

That is fine. The chip is flexible and the card is rated for normal wallet use over many years.

Yes. The chip works in any temperature a normal phone works in. If their phone turns on, the tap works.

The magnet by itself does not. What is secure is what happens when your parent taps it. Inside the magnet is a one-of-a-kind chip that only your kit can produce. The tap places a callback to the family members you picked at setup, never a stranger and never a 1-800 line. The magnet just puts that tap surface where your parent already looks (the kitchen, next to the calendar) so they actually use it in the moment the worst calls land.

Two things, working together. First, the card has the same one-of-a-kind chip as the magnet, in wallet form. A scammer can fake a phone number on caller ID, but they cannot create a real tap from a card they do not have. Second, the card holds your half of the inside story in your own handwriting. A scammer with one card still has only half the exchange. They would need to physically have both cards and know the family memory behind them to fake the call. They cannot do either.

Two things working together, not just the idea behind them. The idea is the easy part: scammers can guess single words and clone voices, so families need a short, layered exchange built from something only that family knows. We can put that in a sentence and many readers will think "got it, I will do this on my own." What you cannot do on your own is the other half: turn an idea you talked about once into a habit your parent will actually run at 9pm when the phone is in their hand. That is what the kit is. A physical card in the wallet and on the fridge means the prompt is there when the call lands, not buried in a text thread from six months ago. A printed setup guide gets your family through writing the exchange without it falling apart into a single guessable word. The chip in the card is how a tap to your family becomes a phone call that no scammer can fake or intercept. And the trust circle on the back end means there is somewhere for the tap to land at 3am when you do not pick up. The hard part of stopping scams is not knowing what to do. It is having the structure in place when the moment comes.

Here is one redacted example. Say your grandfather passed away ten years ago. Everyone in the family already knows that. You might write something like this: parent says, "Hey, your grandfather called." Kid says, "Oh yeah? He's back home?" Parent says, "Just got back, forgot to take his damn shoes off too!" The parent's card carries the cues for their two lines ("Grandfather / Shoes"). The kid's card carries the cue for theirs ("Home"). Each card on its own is gibberish to a stranger. Together, with the family memory behind them, the lines fall out naturally. The setup guide walks you through inventing your own.

The whole point of building it from a family memory is that the lines are easy to remember and the cues on the card are enough to bring the rest back. If everyone in your family knows that your grandfather always forgot to take his shoes off, the card only needs to say "Grandfather / Shoes" for the lines to land naturally. The setup guide walks you through writing yours so the cues do the heavy lifting.

Yes. Write a new one with your family, write the new cues on a fresh card, and the old card is just paper. We do not need to know about the change because we never see the story.

Pick a different first contact for the trust circle. The other half of the inside story only needs to live with the person on the other card. That can be a sibling, a spouse, a trusted friend.

Yes. Write whatever language your family actually uses at home. We never read what is on the card. The chip and the writing are independent of each other.

You write the cues yourself on the card after the kit arrives. We never see them, store them, or send them anywhere. They live only on your cards and in your family's memory.

They hold the card or magnet to the back of any modern phone for about a second. The phone rings within a few seconds. The family member you put first in the trust circle is on the line. If that person does not pick up, we try the second, then the third. We are never on the call. This is a private hotline straight to your people.

No. We do not record audio. The tap places a peer-to-peer call between two phones (your parent's and your family member's). We are the connector, not a listener.

We ring the second person in your trust circle for 30 seconds, then the third. If none of the three picks up, your parent hears a short, calm message telling them to hang up and wait for a callback from the trust circle. You get a text alert the moment the tap happens, so someone is already on it.

Both parties are on their normal phone plans for the call itself. There is no per-minute charge from us.

No. We do not list it, search engines do not index it, and the number does not appear on the card or magnet. The only way to reach the line is to tap a registered card. That is the whole point.

No. The line only accepts callbacks placed by tap authentication. This is a feature: a scammer who somehow learned the number could not use it.

No. Each card has a one-of-a-kind chip. The callback only fires for a real, registered card. A scammer can fake a phone number on caller ID. They cannot fake a tap from a card they do not have. Caller ID is a guess. The tap is proof.

Yes, anytime. There is no account to sign in to. Tap your phone to the card, wait the few seconds for the callback, and press star instead of speaking. That switches to our admin line, a separate path from the routine tap-to-family flow; a Family Word staff member updates your trust circle while you stay on the line. The card itself is the authentication, which is the whole point: only someone holding a real, signed card can make that change. The routine tap path that your parent uses day-to-day never goes through us; only this explicit press-star admin path does.

Free USPS Ground Advantage shipping in the US. In-stock orders ship within 2 to 5 business days; see our <a href="/shipping">shipping page</a> for details. The card is live the moment you finish the five-minute setup where you pick your trust circle. Most buyers do that the same day the kit arrives. If you and your parent live in different cities, see <em>A Second Envelope</em> below for the $9 add-on that ships the kit to you with a pre-paid forward label.

Canada, yes, with a $12 shipping surcharge. Anywhere else, not yet. Email us where you are and we will let you know when we get there.

At checkout, add <em>A Second Envelope</em> for $9. We ship the kit to you with a pre-paid USPS label addressed to your parent, a blank notecard, and a sticker for the outer mailer. You add a note in your own handwriting and drop it in any mailbox. The package arrives at your parent's house from your return address, not from a company they do not know. If you change your mind after the kit arrives and would rather we ship direct, reply to the email we send and we will refund the $9.

Yes. At checkout you can include a printed note in any name (or none). The shipping box does not show what is inside. The gift note is separate from <em>A Second Envelope</em>: the gift note is something you type and we print, included in every kit. A Second Envelope is the $9 add-on that lets you put the kit in the mail to your parent in your own handwriting from your own address. You can use either, both, or neither.

Buy four or more and the per-kit price drops at checkout. We do not need a code; it applies automatically when you change the quantity.

We make the chips, print the cards, run the hotline, and pay the agents who answer the change-trust-circle calls. The $59 covers the kit and the first year of hotline access. Renewal is $19/yr after that, cancel anytime.

The private hotline service renews at $19 per year. Cancel anytime. The cards and the magnet are yours forever even if you cancel, and the inside story still works regardless. We just stop placing the callback.

No. No app, no login, no PIN. The kit is two printed cards, a fridge magnet, a one-page setup guide, and your trust circle on the back end. The whole interface for your parent is a tap.

No, and we want to be honest about this up front. The Family Word is not a recovery service and not a bank. We do not investigate scams, we do not pursue scammers, and we cannot return money that has already moved. What we sell is a way to stop the scam before money moves: an inside story no scammer could finish, and a private, secure hotline that connects your parent's tap to real family in a few seconds. Not strangers reading from a script. Your people, on a tap. That is the entire product.

Yes, on the kit itself. You have 60 days from delivery to return the kit for any reason; we email a prepaid return label and refund within 5 business days. See the full <a href="/refunds">refunds policy</a> for the details. To be clear, this is not a guarantee that you will never be scammed, and it is not a fund that pays out losses. It is a refund on the product.

The tap card needs a modern phone with NFC, which covers nearly every iPhone since 2014 and most Android phones since 2015. If your parent is on a flip phone or a landline, write us before ordering. We have a workaround that uses a printed shortcut code instead, but it is honestly not as good. Be honest about which phone they actually use.

Email us at hello@thefamilyword.com and tell us a little about your situation. Some buyers without close family route the tap to a trusted neighbor, a longtime friend, or in some cases a fraud-aware contact at their bank or credit union, which we can usually set up if the institution is willing. What we cannot do is staff a personal hotline ourselves. Write us, we will be honest about whether we can find a fit for your situation, and if we cannot, we refund the kit on the spot.

The magnet on the fridge does most of the work in this case. Many families in this situation set the trust circle to themselves only, so even an accidental tap connects to a familiar voice. Write us before buying if this is your situation and we will share what other families have done.

Not unless you ask us to. If your parent taps after a scam call and you want help filing with the FTC, FBI, or local police, our agent will walk you through it while you are on the callback. We do not file on your behalf, because that is your decision to make.

No. We do not sell, share, or syndicate your trust circle, your phone numbers, your tap activity, or any other data. Read our short, plain-English privacy policy.