Recently a senior lady came up to me in the grocery story parking lot. She asked me if I would know how to get her $1,000 back from a landscaper that did a terrible job on her property. I asked if she went to the bank. “Yes,” she said, but her check was already cashed. She called the police, they wouldn’t do anything. I told her about an investigator on our local news channel. He often helps people like her. I told her about various ways she could become aware of scammers. Including getting his business card and look for his license number.
Hackers, scammers and thieves are every place these days. Ready to dive into our personal accounts, steal as much as they can get from any of us. They can find us in so many ways.
I stopped answering the phone, unless I recognize the caller I.D. and if I know who is calling. And the activity continues to grow.
Americans submitted more than 1.5 million complaints about financial and other fraud in 2011. At that time it was a 62 percent increase in just three years, according to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) annual “Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book” the most comprehensive database of U.S. fraud trends.
Many scammers are never caught by a regulatory system authorities with staff shortages and inadequate resources. For example, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) admitted in April 2010 that it has never examined some 3,000 registered U.S. investment advisors, Investment News reported. In Canada, only a small percentage of total fraud is reported to law enforcement: one in three Canadians has been targeted by a scammer, yet only 14 percent of fraud attempts are reported to authorities, according to a 2006 online survey by the Canadian Securities Administrators.
While the Internet has made financial fraud more pervasive, law enforcement said most online scams are not much different than those employed by what the snake oil salesmen in the 19th century and Florida swamp-land salesmen in the 1960s. Unsuspecting consumers are deceived over and over again with the same schemes, failing to realize that scammers are infinitely creative in making them believe they are offering something new and lucrative.
Imagine that you may be in a coffee shop. Planning on purchasing your choice of a beverage and set up your laptop to do work or emails. That coffee shop may not have a private WI-FI network. Your laptop information is now open to the public in that shop. The same goes for any public space.
Scammers have gone public, invading libraries, airports, hotel lobbies and rooms, coffee shops and other spaces that offer public WI-FI network connections to the Internet.
With hacking tools that are easily available on-line, sometimes for free, scammers can create their own parallel wireless networks that mimic the name or look of a bona fide establishment’s hot spot. So you think you are on the shop’s network, but you are really on the hacker”s.
All scams have one goal in mind. To separate all of us from our money. Or our identity.
AI – The clearest example of scammers using new technology comes from the explosion of artificial intelligence and thus AI-powered scams.
In December, 2024, the FBI posted a public service announcement listing some of the ways that criminals use generative AI to trick victims.
The Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) also highlighted the increasing role of generative AI in scams around the world and noted that deepfake-related crime increased by more than 1.500% in the Asia-Pacific region from 2022 to 2023.
Generative AI tools generally get classified by the type of content they generate, such as text, images or videos. Scammers can use them to enhance different types of popular scams.
Phishing and smishing:
Scammers can use AI to write more convincing and natural-sounding phishing emails and text messages.
AI Images:
Scammers can use AI-generated images to quickly create eye-catching websites, social media ads, fake identification documents, explicit photos and fake headshots for social media profiles.
Deep Fake videos:
AI-generated videos might be created to promote fake products, services or investments. Scammers also might use deep fake recordings or real-time face and body-swapping tools to trick victimes into thinking they are someone else.
Fake and Cloned Voices:
Scammers also use AI-generated or altered voices for their videos and for phone scams. Some AI tools can even mimic real accents for scammers. You would think that AI was invented to make it easier for scammers to steal from us!
Imposter Scams:
Scammers almost always hide their identity, and imposter scams are one of the most common types of scams or fraud because the category is fairly broad. These happen when the scammer pretends to be a friend, relative, celebrity, politician, businessperson, government agent, delivery person or company representative.
Some types of imposter scams are so prevalent that they have their own name, such as the grandparent scam (which doesn’t actually always involve a grandparent) and romance scams (which sometimes involve platonic rather than romantic relationships).
According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) 2023 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book, about 20% of people targeted by an imposter scam in 2023 lost money, and the median loss was $800. The FTC also reported that government imposter scams in particular led to a massive increase in losses during the first three months of 2024, with median losses of $14,740.
Now that scammers can use AI, it’s more important than ever to be skeptical when someone contacts you, especially if they try to scare you or offer you a gift or investment opportunity. Before you lose a lot more money STOP contacting with these scammers.
2025 Spotlight: Email and Text as Preferred Contact Methods
The FTC reports that the percentage of imposter scams that start with a phone call has decreased from 67% in 2020 to 32% in 2020. Text messages and email are becoming a preferred method of first contact. For example, the scammers might impersonate a company and send a message or email about a fake security alert renewal, invoice, etc.
Sextortion Scams Targeting Children and Teens:
One disturbing scam that’s become more prevalent in recent years is a financial sexual extortion, or sextortion scam.
The scammers often pretend to be young girls or women who are interested in a romantic relationship. They may send stolen or AI generated explicit photos and trick victims into sharing explicit photos or videos. Alternatively, scammers sometimes trick victims after forming a friendship and then offering money, gift cards or something else in exchange for images or videos.
Victims are told that the images or videos will be sent to family, friends and classmates if they don’t pay the scammers. Often, this all happens very quickly, sometimes in less than and hour, and victims may be too embarrassed to ask for help.
The FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline have more resources. You can almost report the scam to the CyberTipline and get help taking down the explicit content.
If you want to learn more, and other scams, please check out https://www.experian.com. Become aware.
HOW TO AVOID a SCAM
While scammers delivery methods and messaging can quickly change, a few basic security measures can help protect you from the latest and most common scams.
- Be Skeptical When Someone Contacts You With Any Kind Of Offer. Scammers can spoof calls and emails to make it look like they are coming from different sources, including government agencies, charities, banks and large companies. Don’t share personal information, usernames, passwords or one-time codes that others can use to access your accounts or steal your identity. Don’t click unknown links. Whether the link arrives in your email, a text or a direct message, never click on it unless you are certain the sender has good intentions. If the message says it is from a company or government agency, call the company using a number that you look up on your own to confirm its legitimacy.
- Be Careful With Your Phone. Similarly, if you suspect a spam call, don’t respond or press a button. The safest option is to hang up or ignore the call entirely. You can look up the organization and initiate a call if you are worried there may be an issue.
- Update Your Devices. Software updates may include important security measures that can help protect your phone, tablet or computer.
- Enable Multifactor Authentication: Add this feature to any accounts that offer it as an option, and try to use a non-SMS version to protect yourself from SIM swapping.
- Research Companies Before Taking Any Actions: Before you make a purchase or donation, take a few minutes to review the company. Do a web search for its name plus “scam” or “reviews” and research charities on Charity Navigator and Charity Watch.
- Don’t Refund or Forward Overpayments: Be careful whenever a company or person asks you to refund or forward part of a payment. Often, the original payment will be fraudulent and taken back later.
- Look for Suspicious Payment Requirements: Scammers often ask for payments via cash, wire transfer, money order, cryptocurrency or gift cards. these payments can be harder to track and cancel than other forms of payment, which can leave you stuck without recourse.
- Create a Family password: Create a family password that you can all use to verify that it’s really one of you on the phone, and not someone who created a deepfaked video or cloned voice.
PLEASE SEE http://experian.com for more information on “What to Do if You Fall Victim to a Scam!
