Americans lose $50M to phone scams in the last year
kshb.com
kshb.com
Wait. What?
So I guess he had Googled for iPhone support and got some bogus phone number. Aside from the potential monetary loss, the scary part was that had they come to the house, he likely would have let them in.
The world and the way in which we do business changes quickly, and red-flags for some aren't red-flags for others. But I'm really curious what search term lead to the fraudulent phone number in the first place -- how are these platforms so gameable?
The most common way people get targeted is either via a pop-up while browsing (e.g. “Your iPhone has a virus! Call xxx xxxx now to fix”) or just random cold calls. Scammers also circulate lists of phone numbers/personal information of victims to previous scams, so once you end up as a victim of one you’re much more likely to be a target for new/more sophisticated scams.
The customer support dept. has a phone number to call, which is listed on the website. But you'd be amazed how many people are willing to call some random number so long as it shows up in a google result. Normally, it's older folks that fall for this type of scam.
The fraud dept. sends a handful of take-down requests to google per week; but it really doesn't do much to stem the incoming flow of support hotline scams. Once a number is taken down, they just create a new website and new fake number.
To reply to your comment more directly, I have no idea whether or not this scam type accounts for a significant portion of scams overall, but for my particular industry it sure is. In any account, the way people are scammed on our site changes all the time depending on what's available/easiest for the scammers, so the methods they use are constantly changing/adapting.
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[0] - What would be the right word for both scammers and dishonest but technically legitimate businesses?
Everything else seemed very normal, until he told me he needed to install 2 programs- 1 was something I had no idea what it was, and the other was a screen sharing + remote login service (I’ve never heard of this software before).
My suspicions were high, so I probed why he needed me to do all this, and he said “because it’s standard service sir. Please let me provide the same.” I noped out of there. Point being: I really wasn’t sure if I was being scammed, but had I not been exposed to various screen sharing software before, I would’ve easily agreed to share my screen in desperation and installed something I’ve never heard of.
Just an anecdotal story of how easy it is to get defrauded off a google search.
People want to be able to call someone for help.
Meanwhile most companies do NOT want you to call them, but want you to figure out how to solve the problem yourself with varying quality of online help.
I ran a small directory of phone numbers, like gethuman before it was a thing.
Every time I came across a company that made it difficult to find their support number, I’d publish a page.
It wasn’t hard for me to rank higher than large telcos or banks in my country.
No wonder why people fall for someone offering a convenient number for help.
Because the vendors themselves certainly aren’t.
Tech support, from a big-name company no less, wanting to get paid in Walmart gift cards? Jesus fucking Christ, how can you believe that.
In other words, the world is new and different to some people. What’s obviously “gaming” to you is not necessarily clear to others.
In my opinion, these are the same type of people that would have given all their livestock to a medieval-traveling pastor because God would have smite them if they didn’t.
You have to be astonishingly ignorant of how the world works to fall for this stuff. What does this say about their ability to participate in an election? They’re eligible to vote, but it seems like even a 12 year old would run circles around them mentally.
The USA elected someone to Presidency who is widely suspected to suffer from mental degeneration.
IMO it's a cultural difference: there are people who constantly engage their minds even at age 70+ and can make young people look pale against them in using computers, and there are people who stopped using their minds in their 40s and it shows.
Its not about ignorance of how world works, their normal world doesn't involve such technology and they never get to the point of being comfortable of new cool tech and don't follow it. Its not ideal, and it doesn't absolve them from their share of blame for the situation, but it is what it is.
I don't think it can be argued that it's reasonable to think the sheriff or the IRS can be paid through iTunes gift cards.
Don't think I'm on a high-horse. Believing that is monumentally stupid.
YouTube.
Very entertaining.
If you have elderly parents, no matter how sharp they are, it’s worth it to take some time and sit with them and go over the basics.
The real amount would include the millions of hours we collectively spend deleting voicemails from "Rachel from card services".
But I've heard multiple stories of people being scammed for large sums of money over the phone and they tell nobody outside their immediate family. It goes unreported. They're too embarrassed.
The personal scams are only a part of this too: scams against business are also running rampant.
Americans lose on average 16 cents to phone scams in the last year.
Australians are expected to report over $532 million (AUD) in losses in 2019: https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/news/record-losses-expected-as-...