by Dave Moore, 12-8-19
Seems I’m blocking five to ten scam calls a day, now that the holiday shopping season is upon us. The Internet bad guys always ramp up their scams this time of year. Fake credit card offers, bogus alerts from the IRS and scary Windows shutoff notices from Microsoft come in at least every hour or two.
Of course, all those causes for alarm are fake. Visa MasterCard will never call you to congratulate you on your excellent payment history and offer you a zero percent credit card. The IRS will never call you on the phone to complain about back taxes and threaten you with being arrested. Microsoft will never “disconnect your Windows license” if you do not call them to get a new IP address. Fake, fake and fake.
In spite of how obviously fake most phone scams are, they are still successful. According to Security Magazine, Americans lost $10.5 billion to phone scams in 2018. Forget that old cliché about senior citizens being more easily fooled, though. Citing the annual Truecaller report, turns out the most gullible phone scam victims are men, young men aged 18-34. 40% of those men lost money to a phone scam that year, a significantly higher number than men over 35, and women in general.
The overall numbers are still pretty dismal, though, with 17% of adult Americans being ripped off by falling for phone scams, with half of those being repeat offenders, saying they’d been phone scammed before.
Why do phone scams work? Greed, combined with ignorance, is my take on it. When you take my free one-night class, “Fight The Internet Bad Guys & Win!” January 15th, 2020, at the new Downtown Norman Public Library, I present examples of phone scams and how to recognize them. It is important to educate yourself on all varieties of Internet scams, phone scams included, as they are often variations on the same theme.
I have a landline with an answering machine connected, which has allowed me to assemble a collection of recordings left by phone scammers, and helped me identify specific schemes they use. For your education and edification, here are some of the types of phone scam attempts I have personally endured.
Andrea, from the Breast Cancer Financial Assistance Fund calls often. She also calls representing Corporations For Character, a group prosecuted by the Federal Trade Commission for violating telemarketing regulations. Google specialists call to help me claim my “Google listing,” and get guaranteed front-page placement with unlimited clicks. They say they can help with Bing and Yahoo, too.
Rachel and Veronica from the Visa MasterCard Alert System and Card Holder Member Services call frequently, promising low-to-zero percent credit cards because of my awesome payment history. Sometimes Rachel gets a little testy, though, and says it’s my “final notice.”
The IRS calls, declaring they are filing a lawsuit again me, and this, also, is my “final notice.” Their “Investigation Team” says I will be taken “under custody by the local police for serious allegations pressed on my name.” Other times, the IRS says I will be “taken under custody by the local cops.”
The Department of Social Security has called more than once, saying there is “illegal enforcement action filed on my Social Security number for criminal activities.” I need to call them before they “begin with illegal proceedings.” When I don’t return their call, they call back, saying they have “suspended” my Social Security number because they found “some suspicious activity.”
Microsoft calls all the time. A Robot Lady tells me my “Windows License Key has been expired,” so they have stopped the Windows services in my computer. They also call “regarding security breach detected on my IP address.” It is upsetting, as my “computer services will be terminated in one hour as my Windows license got expired.”
Then Katherine from Microsoft calls, seemingly granting me a 24-hour reprieve, and says, “We will be disconnecting your license within 48 hours” because my IP address has been compromised “from several countries.” But then, the Microsoft Support Team called and said my Security Defender subscription would “get automatically renewed in 24 hours automatically deduction $299.99 from my credit card.” What to do?
As if that wasn’t enough, Apple called and said they “found some suspicious activities” in my iCloud account. “Your iCloud account has been breached,” they said. “Contact Apple Support Advisor,” they said, and kindly provided the phone number. They called seven times in the same day. Strangely, though, the number turned out to not be a working number.
All the bad grammar quoted above is exactly as delivered. Are you starting to get the idea?
Dave Moore has been fixing computers in Oklahoma since 1984. Founder of the non-profit Internet Safety Group Ltd, he also teaches Internet safety community training workshops. He can be reached at 405-919-9901 or www.internetsafetygroup.com