What you think are robocalls by aggressive marketers are more likely scams by crooks.
The top three phone scams targeting consumers this year are Google listing scams, loan-related scams and fraudsters offering free vacations, an information security company found — by masquerading as unsuspecting customers.
These calls cost Americans $7.4 billion a year, a survey conducted by the Harris Poll found. In 2015, 11% of U.S. consumers reported they lost money to a telephone scam.
The fraud calls begin as robocalls, then escalate when the victim picks up the line.
“These guys actually have call centers that just make fraud calls all day long,” said Vijay Balasubramaniyan, CEO of Pindrop, told USA TODAY.
Pindrop is an Atlanta-based anti-fraud company that helps banks and insurance companies weed out phone scammers. It recently analyzed the fraud calls coming into nearly 100,000 landlines it runs as a "honeypot," a common security technique to lure in attackers to observe and learn from their methods.
The lines received on average 500,000 fraudulent calls a month, which allowed Pindrop to analyze the most common types of fraud robocalls.
Robocalls have surged in recent years in part because new technologies make them so much cheaper.
Con artists anywhere on the planet can make calls for less than one cent per minute, the Federal Trade Commission’s Lois Greisman told a Senate Committee on Aging last year. All that's needed is voice-over-Internet technology, mass-dialing software and programs that hide, or “spoof” their originating phone number, all of which are readily and cheaply available.
The top seven phone scams targeting consumers and small businesses Pindrop has observed so far in 2016:
Google business listing scam
The top scam was one directed at small businesses, which were told their listings on Google were not up to date or were at risk of being removed from the top page of search results. The fraudsters, who have no affiliation with Google, promise to help the business owner in return for a fee. There are also variations on the scam focused on Yahoo and Bing.
Loan scams
This scam offers its victims help lowering loan rates, or sometimes threatening that loans are past due. The callers sometimes use information they’ve gotten from legitimate online loan applications to trick the victims into believing they are actually from their loan provider. The scammers threaten their victims with arrest to frighten them into handing over money.
Free vacation
If you get a recorded call saying ‘You’ve won a free vacation!,” hang up. The fraudsters tell victims they have been selected to receive a free vacation, then use high-pressure tactics to get them to hand over credit card information to pay for "taxes” or additional fees such as food and beverage packages.
Politics
The news cycle is a perennial favorite with fraudsters, who are happy to take advantage of this year’s Presidential election. Some fraudsters are claim they are doing political surveys, often with a “prize” of a cruise for some lucky winners. Others ask for donations, some claim they need personal information to allow the person to re-register to vote and some even say they can allow the person to vote by phone. All ask for personal information that could be used to gain access to the victim’s accounts.
Local map verification
A robocall tells small businesses their firm has been flagged for verification in online maps verification and that only by giving personal information will it continue to be listed on online maps. Using this information the fraudsters can take over accounts.
Lower electricity bills
Another new in 2016 scam, the fraudsters pretend to be from consumers’ local electrical company and offer the chance to lower monthly bill, which requires disclosing personal information.
Important personal message
These messages tell say they have an urgent message about “important personal business” and ask the victim to press 1 to hear the message, which tells them they owe money to the state or for student loans, in an attempt to get personal data or credit card information.
The Federal Trade Commission encourages Americans to register with the federal Do Not Call Registry to minimize robocalls.
Other tips:
- Never give credit card, checking account, or Social Security number information to callers who called you and who you don't know, even if they say it’s only to confirm the information.
- Don’t send cash by messenger, overnight mail, or money transfer.
- If you’re not sure if a call is legitimate, tell them you’ll call back. Don’t call the number on your phone or a number the caller gives you, but instead look up the number for the organization they claim to be from. If they say it’s impossible for you to call back, hang up.
