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Tag: scam alert

  • Feds are launching another crackdown on robocalls

    Feds are launching another crackdown on robocalls

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    Federal regulators on Tuesday announced a broad crackdown on what they called a “tide of illegal telemarketing calls” plaguing U.S. consumers. 

    Samuel Levin, Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said the effort will target telemarketers that continue to flout laws against robocalls as well as so-called consent farms, or firms that provide people’s phone numbers to robocallers while falsely claiming that consumers have agreed to receive calls. Federal and state authorities will also target providers of internet phone service that enable illegal robocalls, he added.

    The FTC — along with officials from the Federal Communications Commission and U.S. Department of Justice as well as state prosecutors from Ohio and Illinois — have already filed complaints against two of the nation’s largest consent farms as part of the push to step up the government’s fight against robocalls.

    “Tricking customers into agreeing to robocalls is not clever, it’s not innovative — it’s illegal,” Levine said in a news conference. “I know this is not what robocallers want to hear, but it is, and has been, the law.”

    Telemarketing firms may not simply rely on lead-generation firms to claim that a consumer has provided their consent to receive robocalls, according to the FTC. Rather, telemarketers must obtain consent directly from the individual who is called.

    Spam-demic

    “It is hard to overstate the role that these consent farms play in our country’s epidemic of spam calls,” Levine said. “They are fueling fraud and opening the door to billions of robocalls but with the actions being announced today the FTC and our partners are going to shut that door and lock it.” 

    Federal regulators filed a complaint against Fluent, a New York-based publicly traded media company that allegedly operated as a consent farm from January 2018 to December 2019. FTC officials accuse Fluent of creating fake websites that promise job offers or gift cards to Walmart or UPS. Site users were encouraged to complete a form that includes their personal information, and Fluent would then allegedly sell that data to telemarketers, the complaint claims.

    Fluent sold more than 620 million personal data leads to robocallers, and the company now faces a $2.5 million settlement payment, the FTC said. 

    Fluent told CBS MoneyWatch that the company shares “the FTC’s concerns about the use of robocall technology.”

    “Fluent has worked tirelessly and collaboratively with the FTC for over three years, and we are pleased to have reached a resolution,” the company said in its statement. “Importantly, our settlement with the FTC includes no admission or finding of wrongdoing, and we are confident that our telemarketing consent practices comply with all legal requirements.”

    Federal regulators also took legal action against Viceroy Media, a digital marketing company in California that allegedly used websites to capture consumers’ personal information. In a separate complaint, the FTC accused Viceroy of operating quick-jobs.com and localjobindex.com as a front for capturing personal data. The company’s two owners — Sunil Kanda and Quynh Tran of California — then sold the data to robocallers, the FTC alleged. 

    Viceroy didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

    “This is really a comprehensive crackdown, not only on telemarketers but those like voice providers and consent farms, who make their fraud possible,” Levine said.

    “Plague of locusts”

    Federal and state authorities have for years tried to stamp out unlawful robocalls, including those to people on the FTC’s Do Not Call Registry. In 2021, three brothers from New Jersey paid a $1.6 million settlement for their role in instigating more than 45 million illegal robocalls.

    In another action taken against a major telemarketer, attorneys general from nearly every U.S. state filed a lawsuit in May against Avid Telecom, which was accused of making more than 7.5 billion robocalls to people on the FTC’s no-call list. Those calls related to the Social Security Administration, Medicare, auto warranties, Amazon, DirecTV, credit card interest rate reduction and employment, according to the suit. 

    Americans received 50.3 billion robocalls in 2022, roughly the same number as 2021, according to YouMail data. Many calls involve scams. In 2022, phone scams yielded a median loss of $1,400 per person, according to the FTC. 

    “Robocallers are like a plague of locusts, using modern-day technology to swarm through the international telecommunications landscape, deceiving, scamming, defrauding thousands of our constituents every single day,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost on Tuesday.

    Khristopher J. Brooks

    Khristopher J. Brooks is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering business, consumer and financial stories that range from economic inequality and housing issues to bankruptcies and the business of sports.

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  • Phone scammers are using artificial intelligence to mimic voices

    Phone scammers are using artificial intelligence to mimic voices

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    Phone scams are nothing new, but thanks to artificial intelligence, they are getting more sophisticated and believable. 

    Jennifer Destefano will never forget the frantic call supposedly from her 15-year-old daughter, Brianna.

    “She goes, ‘Mom, these bad men have me, Help me, help me, help me,” Destefano said. “And this man gets on very aggressive, ‘Listen here, I have your daughter.’ And then that’s when I went into panic mode.”

    That man demanded $1 million.

    “I said that wasn’t possible, so then he came up with $50,000,” Destefano said.

    She never paid the money, and would soon learn the call was a popular AI scam, where people use new software to recreate the voices of loved ones in distress. Scammers then ask for large sums of money.

    “A voice is like a fingerprint. So that’s that unique fingerprint that’s being exploited and weaponized,” Destefano said. “It has to stop.”

    Americans lost nearly $9 billion to fraud last year alone, up more than 150% in just two years, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

    “Younger people experience fraud and fraud losses more often than older people,” said Kathy Stokes, AARP director of fraud prevention. “But, it’s that older adult who has so much to lose.”

    Cyber security expert Pete Nicoletti created CBS News’ Carter Evans’ voice from old news reports that can be found online.

    “Hey, this is Carter. I need your credit card number right now,” the recreated voice said — something Evans himself never said.

    The fake Evans voice was tested on his own mother.

    “Hey, I’m about to do an interview, but I have a quick question: I need you to text me your driver’s license number as soon as you can,” Evans’ AI-generated voice said over the phone.

    His mother fell for it. The real Evans called her up afterward to explain. She said the accuracy of the fake voice was “scary.”

    “We live in a post-real society,” Nicoletti said. “You can’t trust the voice. You can’t trust the photo and you can’t trust the video anymore.”

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  • Avoid these scams on Amazon Prime Day this week

    Avoid these scams on Amazon Prime Day this week

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    With Amazon Prime Day kicking off Tuesday, experts are warning consumers to beware of scams targeting bargain-hunting shoppers.

    Fraudsters will employ a number of deceptive tactics, including “phishing” emails and fake websites, social media posts and text messages to trick customers into sharing their personal information, according to the Better Business Bureau.

    “More deals are great for consumers, and more people out shopping is great for businesses large and small,” the group said in its Prime Day warning to customers. “Just be careful, and don’t get so caught up in the excitement that you fall for phishing scams, misleading advertisements and lookalike websites.”

    A phishing scam happens when a fraudster sends an email or text message to a customer about, for example, a delay in shipping a purchase on Amazon or other e-commerce platform. Such messages will typically include a link where the customer is encouraged to provide account details. 

    amazon-email-scam.jpg
    The above screenshot shows an example of an Amazon online phishing scam sent to a customer in 2019.

    West Mifflin Borough Police Department


    Never click on a link that you’re not 100% confident comes from Amazon, the experts said. Keeping track of what has been ordered and when it’s expected to arrive can also help customers avoid becoming a victim, the BBB said.  

    “Maybe set up a database with order numbers, tracking numbers [and[ how it’s coming to you,” Melanie McGovern, a BBB spokeswoman, told CBS affiliate WHIO. “Just so you know if you do get a text message or you get an email saying there’s a shipping delay or there’s an issue, you can just refer to that spreadsheet.”

    Phishing attempts also can be made via text message, with scammers often falsely telling customers that they’ve won a free gift and inviting them to fill out a form to claim the prize. 

    Most phishing strategies aimed at Amazon customers prey on their misunderstanding of how the retailer communicates with individual consumers, experts said. A company representative is unlikely ever to contact a shopper directly and ask about order details, Scott Knapp, Amazon’s director of worldwide buyer risk prevention, told CBS affiliate WNCN. 

    “There’s the message center, which will tell you if we’re trying to get in touch with you or if it’s trying to confirm an order, you can go right to the My Orders page,” Knapp said. 

    Cybercriminals also sometimes create web pages that look like Amazon.com in order to lure customers into placing orders on the dummy site. Indeed, fraudsters try to mimic an Amazon page more than any other business website, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Amazon helped delete more than 20,000 fake websites last year, Knapp told WNCN. 

    The simplest way to spot a dummy site is to look for spelling or grammatical errors in the URL or somewhere on the page, the BBB said. Customers are encouraged to report fraudulent websites to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov or on Amazon’s customer service website. 

    Prime Day this year officially launches at 3 a.m. on Tuesday and will end 48 hours later. Analysts with Bank of America Securities estimate the two-day promotion, which Amazon launched in 2015, could generate nearly $12 billion in merchandise sales. 

    “With consumers looking for deals, more merchant participation, faster deliveries and steep discounts, we expect a relatively strong Prime Day, with potential for upside to our 12% growth estimate vs. Prime Day last July,” they said in a report on Monday.

    Khristopher J. Brooks

    Khristopher J. Brooks is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering business, consumer and financial stories that range from economic inequality and housing issues to bankruptcies and the business of sports.

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  • Scammers ramp up activity as tax deadline approaches

    Scammers ramp up activity as tax deadline approaches

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    Peak tax season comes with an increase in scammers hoping to dupe people out of their money. In recent years, more than 75,000 Americans have lost $28 million in IRS imposter scams, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

    Amy Nofziger, a fraud expert for AARP, says people should be on the lookout for these scams, because the imposters, “know that we’re stressed and that it’s going to be easy manipulating us.”

    Would-be victims receive a phone call, text message or email claiming to be from the IRS, saying back taxes are owed or there’s a problem with a return.

    “We hear a lot of people being requested for prepaid gift cards or even cryptocurrency to pay for these,” Nofziger said.

    She also said to pay close attention when hiring someone to prepare your return.

    Tiffany Maddox says a company she trusted to prepare her taxes took about one-third of her refund. She told CBS News the company seemed legitimate, but a few weeks after she filed, somebody sent her a message on Facebook saying they had been scammed out of $2,000.

    “That’s when I started to worry,” Maddox said. She now cautions others not to trust ads they see on Facebook and to go in person when doing their taxes.

    The Alabama mom, who also took to Facebook to warn others, is one of thousands who have fallen victim to preparer scams.

    Unscrupulous tax return services could also leave people open to liability with errors or false information. In some cases, they can even deposit you refund in their account.

    Nofziger also said people should try not to leave paper checks sitting in their mailboxes for too long because of a practice called check washing.

    “This is where a criminal will steal your paper check and, essentially, they’ll erase whatever you have on there… and they’ll rewrite it to whoever they want to rewrite it to, and often they’ll write it for higher dollar amounts,” she said.

    Tax experts also say that, if the IRS needs to get in touch, it will most likely contact you by mail first. So, if you are receiving a call, text or email as your first contact, it could be a scam. 

    Experts also say it’s important to check the credentials of anyone you give your information to and, if possible, pay digitally.

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  • 29 arrested in Egypt after thousands were swept up in Hoggpool cryptocurrency investment scam

    29 arrested in Egypt after thousands were swept up in Hoggpool cryptocurrency investment scam

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    Cairo — Egyptians who invested in a cryptocurrency mining app were hit last week with the daunting realization that the incredible profits they thought they were making all boiled down to fiction. The platform, called Hoggpool, was launched in August.

    In a promotional video, a man introduced the company with a claim that it was founded in Colorado in
    2019 and was investing in cutting-edge industries, from “life sciences technology” to “space tech and blockchain.” He called it “one of the leading energy providers worldwide” and said it offered “cryptocurrency mining at all levels.”

    A screengrab from a YouTube video shows a man promoting an investment company called Hoggpool to Egyptians. The company was the target of raids by Egyptian police, who arrested 29 individuals in early March 2023 in connection with the cryptocurrency scam.
    A screengrab from a YouTube video shows a man promoting an investment company called Hoggpool to Egyptians. The company was the target of raids by Egyptian police, who arrested 29 individuals in early March 2023 in connection with the cryptocurrency scam.

    Potential investors were offered various plans starting from only about $10, with a fixed profit promised of $1 per day over a specific period. The investment options ranged up to an $800 crypto-mining “machine” with a $55 per-day payout.

    Hoggpool told investors they could withdraw their money daily, minus a 15% tax, or wait until the end of the month and withdraw all their returns tax-free.

    To Tarek Abd El-Barr, who works in medical supplies, it sounded like an incredible opportunity.

    “They said they were ‘workers in mining,’” he told CBS News. “No one in Egypt knows what mining coins is. We don’t know anything about these things. We thought it was electronic investing — that they were like Amazon or Microsoft.”

    Pyramid and Ponzi schemes are nothing new in Egypt, but cryptocurrency scams are. Receptions, parties and meetings held by the people behind Hoggpool, in fancy hotels and other venues, gave users the impression that it was all aboveboard.

    Lawyers and victims told CBS News that ads on social media platforms lured some in, but for many, it was acquaintances who had already been hooked.

    A photo shared with CBS News by Egyptian lawyer Hussein El-Faham shows people attending an event organized by the Hoggpool company in Cairo, Egypt. Egyptian police announced on March 4, 2023, that 29 people had been arrested in connection to the cryptocurrency investment scam.
    A photo shared with CBS News by Egyptian lawyer Hussein El-Faham shows people attending an event organized by the Hoggpool company in Cairo, Egypt. Egyptian police announced on March 4, 2023, that 29 people had been arrested in connection to the cryptocurrency investment scam.

    Courtesy of Hussein El-Faham


    Abd El-Barr’s brother-in-law, who was using the app and seeing consistent profits, convinced him to join. Skeptical at first, he started with an investment of just 6,000 Egyptian pounds (about $200) in February. It seemed to work as promised, as such scams often do, and he got his money back with profits, so he tripled his investment.

    The platform’s biggest and final offer was a new “deposit funds” feature, with which users were told they could earn as much as five times the value of their existing investment in just five days. Abd El-Barr was skeptical again, but as it had worked thus far, he went ahead and took the risk, throwing all of his savings into the app.

    On February 27, when he tried to withdraw his money, it didn’t work. Two days later, on March 1, the app stopped working completely and the website vanished.

    “Many people took loans from banks to invest in it. I used my car instalment money. Now I have missed two installments and the bank is calling me,” he said.

    Dozens of videos of people sharing their stories and crying out for help quickly flooded the internet.

    A photo posted on Facebook by Egypt's Ministry of Interior on March 4, 2023, shows some of the 29 people arrested in connection with a cryptocurrency investment scam that saw unwitting investors robbed of hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to Egyptian police.
    A photo posted on Facebook by Egypt’s Ministry of Interior on March 4, 2023, shows some of the 29 people arrested in connection with a cryptocurrency investment scam that saw unwitting investors robbed of hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to Egyptian police.

    Egyptian Ministry of Interior


    On Saturday, Egyptian authorities announced the arrest of 29 suspects, including 13 foreign nationals, in connection with the scam. Police seized 95 phones, 3,367 SIM cards and about $194,000 worth of Egyptian and foreign currency as they made the arrests, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement. It said the culprits used 88 digital currency wallets to collect the money, then divided it into 9,965 e-wallets and converted it into bitcoin before transferring it into accounts around the world.

    The statement said the suspects had bilked unsuspecting investors of at least 19 million pounds, or about $615,000, but many in Egypt believe the real total was likely much higher.

    Lawyer Abdulaziz Hussein told CBS News he was representing more than 1,000 victims of the scam in Cairo alone, but that as many as 800,000 people around the country may have fallen prey to the scheme, losing as much as 6 billion pounds in total — the equivalent of about $194 million.

    Cryptocurrency trading is illegal in Egypt, and another lawyer representing some of the victims said that had likely kept many from reporting the crime.

    “Some of the victims might turn into suspects if the investigations prove they knew what they were doing was illegal,” said Mahmoud El-Semri.

    It is hard to tell how many of the victims might have continued investing, and recruiting others, with knowledge that the scheme involved banned cryptocurrency, especially as most appear to have joined through recommendations from friends or family — people they trusted and who, in many cases, probably meant well.

    “Most people didn’t look into the details of how this works, we just understood they would invest the money in programing,” Hussein El-Faham, a lawyer who was swept up in the scam himself, told CBS News.

    He said it was an elaborate scam that looked and sounded legitimate, complete with forged documentation.

    A falsified document purporting to show the Hoggpool company’s U.S. business credentials was shared with CBS News by Egyptian lawyer Hussein El-Faham, who was swept up in the cryptocurrency scam himself.

    Courtesy of Hussein El-Faham


    El-Faham said he and others heard warnings about it being a scam, but as the app initially continued paying out money as promised, it was easy to dismiss those reports. The people behind the app even used the warnings of fraud as a marketing tool, he said.

    El-Faham shared a screenshot with CBS News that showed the scammers warning users of “fake” apps, asking them — in poorly written Arabic — to “please be cautious, those scammers have a low-tech level, and they are stupid enough to copy our system layout. Keep your eyes open.”

    El-Faham lost about $6,000 to the scheme.

    Dr. Sarah Zain, a physiotherapist, told CBS News she had her doubts about the app even as she used it, as it appeared to be an unsustainable business model, but she thought it would take longer to fall apart. She didn’t get her money out in time and ended up losing more than $7,000, which she said she needed for an upcoming surgery.

    “A friend of mine and her family invested two million pounds (about $65,000), she is not talking to anyone now,” she said. “I can’t believe we were that stupid! They did brainwash us.”

    Zain also put some blame on the government for allowing the scammers to operate openly for months.

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