Recognizing Phone Scams
On a typical day, my parents get a dozen or more junk calls on their home phone line. When I visit them I try to be the one who answers the phone, to save them from dealing with yet another solicitation, robocall or scammer.
During my last visit, I answered two calls in a single day from people claiming they worked for U.S. federal agencies. After the first caller gave her name and identified her purported employer, I said incredulously, “You’re telling me that you are an employee of the Department of Health and Human Services?” She immediately hung up. The second caller was more persistent. Supposedly calling from Medicare, he tried to ask some “yes” or “no” questions about my mother’s contact information. (With my mother’s permission, I allowed the caller to believe I was her.) I told him that if he was calling from Medicare, he already had my contact information, which had not changed. He persisted, and I ended the call.
To the unwary ear, these two calls might have seemed legitimate. The “Medicare” caller was already in possession of my mother’s full name, address and phone number, and he seemed to be merely confirming those data points. But the two calls described above were part of a government impersonator scam. I knew this because U.S. government agencies will not call you out of the blue; if they need to reach you about something important, they will always send a letter.
Government impersonator scammers will claim to be calling from Medicare, the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, or some other (real or invented) government agency. Caller ID does not protect you from them, as scammers may “spoof” the phone number of a government agency—they can use technology to show any number they want in your caller ID.
A government impersonator scammer might say they’re calling about an unpaid tax bill, or about government benefits that will be cut off if you don’t provide personal identifying information or immediate payment. Or they might say they’re calling to confirm your personal information, when their true aim is to record your voice. Why? Because artificial intelligence now makes it possible for a scammer to engage in voice cloning: recording a snippet of your voice, then feeding that voice recording into software that can make the scammer’s voice sound exactly like yours when they call someone else—like a loved one or your bank.
The Social Security Administration describes four basic signs of a scam, a.k.a. the “four P’s”:
Pretense: Scammers pretend to be someone trustworthy like a government employee or relative.
Problem or prize: Scammers invoke either a problem or a prize (a stick or a carrot) to convince you that you must act.
Pressure: Scammers pressure you to act quickly. This might look like a threat (of arrest, for example), a promise of something good (as long as you act by a “deadline”), or a tug on your heartstrings.
Payment: Scammers tell you to pay them in a specific way—using a gift card, prepaid debit card, cryptocurrency, wire or money transfer, or by mailing cash.
The two phone calls I answered for my parents don’t quite fit the “four P’s” mold, because they represent the first step in a scam that involves multiple calls. But consider how the four P’s manifest in these scenarios:
The sweepstakes or lottery scam, wherein you are notified that you have won a monetary prize and you’re directed to send money to cover supposed taxes or processing fees before claiming the winnings.
The impending legal action scam, where you receive an “urgent” call, often from someone claiming to be law enforcement, saying that if you don't pay a fine by an imminent deadline, you will be sued or arrested.
The sweetheart scam, in which a long-distance, romantic relationship is struck up, and eventually the scammer asks you to cover travel expenses for a visit or move that ultimately does not materialize. Alternatively, they might ask you for money to cover a medical or other emergency.
The grandparent scam, which preys simultaneously on (1) age-related ailments like hearing impairment and cognitive decline, and (2) the unique love of a grandparent for a grandchild. The scammer begins the call with a greeting like, “Hi, Grandma, do you know who this is?” If the scammer sounds enough like one of your grandchildren—and if he’s using voice cloning software he might sound exactly like them—he can tug on your heart strings to secure bail money or first and last month’s rent or whatever else he can convince you he needs.
The tech support scam, in which a text message (or text-like notification) claims that your cellphone is damaged and provides a number to call or a link to click for the fix. Upon calling the number or clicking the link, you are prompted to pay before the supposed tech support will be provided.
The scalability and low cost of robocalling make it another popular option for scammers. A robocall may claim that a car warranty is about to expire and payment is needed to renew it. As with government impersonator calls, robocall purveyors can spoof the number from which they’re calling to make you think you’re answering a call from a reputable organization.
How do you protect yourself? In the past, as long as you didn’t provide information like Social Security or bank account numbers over the phone, you were safe. But with advances in technology, even speaking a few words can arm a scammer with the ability to clone your voice. Gone are the days when you can patiently allow a telemarketer to make a sales pitch, then instruct them to put you on their Do Not Call List and politely end the call. Unfortunately, the best way to protect yourself now is simply to hang up—or send all calls from unfamiliar numbers straight to voicemail.
The thought of abruptly hanging up on people or screening calls discomfits many of us who grew up sharing a single telephone line with the rest of our family (or even with other households). But we must abandon this deeply-engrained etiquette, because scammers take advantage of it.
So if you want to protect yourself from phone scams, abandon your phone etiquette.
Don’t ever let politeness stop you from just hanging up.
Don’t answer calls from unfamiliar numbers, even if they seem legitimate. If it’s important, they’ll leave a voicemail message. If it’s important government business, they won’t call at all; they’ll send a letter.
If you answer a call from someone you know and they ask you for money, end the call and call (or text or email) them back using contact information you already had for them.
If you answer a call from a stranger, assume their every utterance is false until proven otherwise.
If you or a loved one has already been the victim of a phone scam, it might be possible to recover for monetary losses even if the scammer is “in the wind.” Contact Caplan Wilkinson to find out if we can help.
