By: Aaron Schwenker, Senior Vice President, Senior Compliance Officer
Whether it’s a claim about an unauthorized credit card charge or a notice that a warranty is expiring, scams are everywhere. It’s important to know how to recognize and handle them.
Common Types of Scams
1. Robocalls and phone scammers are the most common types of scams. The calls may claim you have an auto warranty that’s expiring or a financial offer that needs attention. No matter where they come from or what message they claim to convey, most of these scam calls share a common aim: convincing you to divulge personal information like Social Security numbers, bank account details or home addresses. They typically pressure you to act quickly.
With the integration of today’s artificial intelligence (AI), scammers are attempting to steal a sample recording of your voice and use it to fake your identity. The scam typically begins with a voice call from an unlisted or anonymous number. When answered, the caller often says, ‘Hello? Can you hear me?’ as if experiencing a poor connection. This prompts the recipient to respond, providing the scammer with enough voice samples, including various words and inflections, to potentially misuse. Fraudsters use your speech sample to train their AI to mimic your voice pattern. AI doesn’t need much sampling to clone your speech.
2. Phishing emails and text messages can appear as though they are coming from a friend, financial institution, credit card or insurance company. The communication might read, “We are unable to process your transaction to Amazon from your XYZ bank account. Please click on the link below to provide additional information.” Another example: “Your online bank account or investment account will be locked in the next 24 hours if you do not click the link below to update your password.”
Phishing is the practice of sending fraudulent communications that appear to come from a legitimate and reputable source, usually through email and text messaging.
3. Government imposter scammers pretend to be from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Social Security Administration or Medicare and come in the form of phone calls and emails. They may claim you have unpaid taxes, and immediate payment, such as prepaid debit card, cash or wire transfer is needed. Or they may say your Social Security benefits or Medicare benefits will be cut off if you do not provide personal identifiable information. Highly advanced scammers will even engage in “spoofing” where the call or text from a phone number will display with the same area code as a government agency (202 for Washington D.C., for example).
Spoofing is when someone disguises an email address, email sender name, phone number, or website URL – often just by changing one letter, symbol, or number – to convince you that you are interacting with a trusted source.
4. Other scams
Be cautious of these other scammer trends that could come in the form of email, phone or a text message.
- Grandparent: Scammers will call you and pretend to be a grandchild or relative asking for you to wire or transfer money to help them out of trouble.
- Sweepstake/Lottery: Scammers tell you that you’ve won a prize through a lottery or sweepstakes and then ask you to pay an upfront payment for fees and taxes.
- Charity: Scammers pose as a real charity or make up the name of a charity that sounds real to get money from you.
- Technology Support: Scammers pretend to be computer technicians who say they’ve found a problem with your computer and ask for payment to fix the issue.
- Dating & Romance: Scammers create fake profiles on dating websites and spend time getting to know you and developing trust to fool you into thinking the relationship is real before asking you for money, a loan or access to your finances.
- And more! Clever scammers continue to find new ways to trick people, so always be alert.
What you can do
The good news is there are many things you can do to protect yourself, including these 8 simple actions you can take:
- Use Caller ID to screen calls and do not answer phone calls from numbers you do not know. They will leave a message if it’s important, and you can call back.
- Hang up, without responding, if you’ve answered a scam call.
- Be cautious with personal information. Don’t give out personal or financial information over the phone or internet, especially if you feel pressured to do so. A good rule of thumb is to never provide personal information when you did not initiate the conversation.
- Don’t click on suspicious links or attachments in emails or text messages. Be sure to thoroughly read the message and ask yourself if this truly relates to you. Did you give the institution reaching out permission to text you? If you really aren’t sure if the message is real or not, reach out to the institution in question directly.
- Report the number to the Better Business Bureau® at BBB.org/ScamTracker to help warn others.
- Join the “Do Not Call” registry (DoNotCall.gov) to cut down on telemarketing and sales calls. This may not help avoid scammers since they don’t tend to pay attention to the law, but you’ll get fewer calls overall, which may help you more quickly notice the ones that could be fraudulent.
- Check your bank and credit card accounts regularly for unauthorized charges.
- Stop and talk to someone you trust. Someone else has probably received a similar message or talking about it could help you realize it’s a scam. Open communication might just save someone else from being a victim of fraud, too.
In addition, the key to avoiding a scam is recognizing the common signs of one. The main indicators are:
- Scammers may pretend to be from an organization you know
- Say there’s a problem or a prize that needs your attention
- Pressure you to act immediately
- Tell you to pay in a specific way
And always, always be cautious and suspicious when you are asked for personal information, whether it be by phone, email, or in person.
If you are the victim of a scam or believe you saw a scam attempt, report it to the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov or call 877-382-4357.