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In October 2023, cuts Financial-advice columnist Charlotte Cowles She was working from her Brooklyn apartment when she got a call.
A woman on the line said she was from Amazon and was inquiring about suspicious activity on Cowles’ account, including charges on thousands of dollars in electronic devices opened under business accounts in his name.
At first, Cowles was grateful to the caller, who told him he would be put in touch with the Federal Trade Commission, an agency that protects American consumers from fraud.
When a person called the FTC, he knew Cowles’ address and Social Security number as well as the names of his family members. He then told her that he was being investigated for fraud and money laundering. He told Cowles that he had 22 bank accounts, nine vehicles and four properties registered in his name. The worst thing, he said, is that his family is in danger and criminals are keeping an eye on him.
“It seemed crazy,” Cowles said. Independent This week via email. “But no one came out of the gate asking for money. That part didn’t actually come until hours and hours and hours later.”
The man warned that if Cowles talked to her husband, she could be implicated in the investigation. He then handed her over to someone whom he claimed was an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency.
The man convinced the journalist to withdraw $50,000 from his bank account so they could seize his assets. When she reached home with the cash, a man came and kept the money in the back seat of a Mercedes SUV.
She was told she would then receive a $50,000 treasury check and a new Social Security number. She claimed that she could not just use cash as all her assets were part of the investigation.
Cowles was still on the phone six hours later. But it was Halloween. She continued trick-or-treating with her son, standing in line with her cell in her pocket.
At one point, she checked to see if the person on the phone was still there and a female co-worker replied that he would be back soon. When she reached home the phone had been disconnected.
Cowles, now nervous, called back and the woman told him the man was “busy” and would talk to him in the morning about a new Social Security appointment.
In a sudden, shocking moment, Cowles realized he had been defrauded.
“I don’t think I can explain how scared I was,” she wrote. “By saying that my child was in danger and my family’s safety was at risk, the scammers really made me feel like I had no choice but to follow their instructions.”
“They managed to find my weakest point and put pressure on it,” he said. Cowles reported the scam to the police but never got his money back.
Fake plan, real problem
There’s a reason it’s an MTV show catfish Ran for nine seasons. Even the smartest people can be duped – and scams are becoming more sophisticated.
a record $16.6 billion Losses were reported to the FBI last year, and approximately 73 percent of American adults have been victims of online scams or attacks, including credit card fraud or ransomware. Pew Research Center,
Bad actors are using an increasing number of diverse strategies to take advantage of your parents, grandparents, neighbors, and best friends.
From fake phone calls pretending to be federal agents to AI deepfakes of political leaders and messages asking for money during elections, it’s hard to know what’s real. In some cases, victims have lost millions of dollars.
a costly mistake
Experts say a common misconception about scams could leave you even more vulnerable Independent,
Although it may appear that older Americans are more Affected by scams and fraudYoung people are equally vulnerable. a fresh report The FTC revealed that Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X are 34 percent more likely to report losing money to fraud than those over 60.
“One reason is that they’re online more, but they also face tremendous economic uncertainty,” said Lana Swartz, a media studies professor at the University of Virginia who has written a book about the scams. “It can be very difficult to see the difference between a scam job ad and a genuine job ad, especially when jobs are scarce.”
People in precarious financial situations are most vulnerable, including gig workers, immigrants, people without bank accounts, and people going through major life changes.
But, one can find themselves stuck due to extreme situations or time pressure.
“In those moments, even well-informed individuals can become victims – not because they lack awareness, but because the context changes and the cues they usually rely on no longer apply,” said Sebastian Schuetz, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder who studies human behavior and cybersecurity.
a nice gift
Bad actors want money, power, control, and abuse. Some people will do nothing to get it. But, what makes a “good” scam?
It often boils down to biology, tapping into powerful human emotions like fear. This can actually make it harder for people to solve the problem, said Mary Poffenroth, an author and bio-psychologist at San Jose State University.
The prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for decision making, shuts down, and the amygdala, the brain’s fear center, becomes activated.
“Once we are in a state of fear, we are more likely to act reactively rather than reflectively. Add the manufactured urgency that these criminals adopt and the unprepared victim barely stands a chance,” she explained.
“In short, scams succeed by getting people to think with their hearts rather than their heads,” Schuetz said.
People are often duped because they are overconfident in their ability to identify something suspicious and do not move away from it, even if they know it is a scam.
All experts say one of the worst mistakes people make is entanglement, because scams depend on the victims’ work.
“I even gave my credit card information to the scammer, who caught me when I got home from the hospital after giving birth to my daughter,” Swartz recalled. “I put the hospital bill on a credit card that had good rewards for large transactions, and the scammer was asking to verify unusual payment activity.”
“He reached out to me when I was completely exhausted with a credible story,” she said.
how to stay safe
When in doubt, no action is the safest action and Schuetz says there are very few cases where inaction will have serious consequences.
Report the scam to your bank, social media platform or law enforcement.
“Practice cognitive rehearsal, like asking yourself: ‘If my next call was someone saying my daughter was going to be killed if I didn’t give them money, what would I say, what would be my next next step?'” Poffenroth explained.
Unfortunately, AI could be a real “game-changer” – and not in a good way – creating new types of scams and supercharging existing scams with scale, speed and by adding familiar voices and realistic videos.
In new romance scams, trafficking victims use AI faces for “pig slaughter” schemes, when fraudsters gain romantic interest and trust over time before making victims make fraudulent investments.
It also eliminates well-known red flags like bad grammar and recycled messages.
As a result, it’s becoming harder for even the most alert people to recognize AI — even in clips using a person’s own voice, Poffenroth said.
“The time to rely only on your instincts in these types of situations is gone, so we all need to make sure we are constantly updating our digital literacy, understanding what AI can/can’t do, teach/share the tactics of these scammers, use verification tactics, and increase your mastery of fear,” she said.