Having been in law enforcement for many, many years, I have seen many schemes to separate people from their hard-earned money. In the 80s and before, we saw door-to-door vendors such as the gypsies that came to town to seal driveways, or do roofing that never seemed to get done once the downpayment was received. In the 90s, it was telephone scams. Since the 2000s, we have seen a proliferation of schemes involving computers. But, as they say, wait long enough and things will always come back in style. Telephone scams have become common again, thanks to AI.
Estimates by the FBI are that Americans lost over $17 billion to online scams in 2023, and that number was projected to raise over 15% in 2024. Many companies that track theft think this number is extremely low. This is with good reasoning. Many people are embarrassed that they were scammed, accept the loss, and never report it. According to Kiplinger, one in four Americans lost an average of $500 to online scams in 2023. That number will only rise in the future.
In the past, The Beacon ran an article from the Lee County Sheriff on how to protect yourself from being scammed online, but, as I am sure we have all seen, online is not the only threat. I believe it is essential that we as a community put ourselves at the forefront to protect ourselves and our neighbors from becoming victims of scams.
I would like to address the two most prolific scams being done today to separate Americans from our hard-earned money.
PHONE SCAMS
Over the last 7 to 10 years, telephone scams have become perhaps the most common of all scams. What has dramatically increased this type of criminal activity is Artificial Intelligence. I am sure all of us have received a call wanting to talk to us about selling a piece of property, of which we have never heard the address. Or the call wanting to talk to us about something that is completely foreign to us. Most of us see this as an annoyance. In many cases these callers are wanting us to respond to certain, planned questions to establish voice patterns that AI can use to create generated phone calls to banks, businesses, or family members, Through the use of AI, it is virtually impossible to tell that is it not really us. Sadly, one of the most common scams is for grandma or grandpa to get a call from a grandchild, saying that they have had some calamity, where they need money fast, and ask the grandparent to go to Walmart, or another location that has electronic money, and send them money. Only after this is done, does the grandparent find out that they have been duped.
I will never forget late in my career where one of my officers asked for me to help to see if there was any way to “recover” money taken from an 85-year-old lady that was living in an assisted living facility. The officer had been sent to see the daughter of this lady, who said that her mother had gotten a call from her son, saying he had gone to Canada to see a hockey match, gotten arrested and needed $5,000 for bail. After the grandmother sent the money, the grandson called back saying his car broke down and needed a new engine, and there were several more calls over a little more than a week. In all, the lady lost almost all of her life savings, for a total loss of $87,000.
You may say, how could this happen? Years ago, crooks ran what was called confidence games. Today they use AI to make people do things they would never normally do. But when it comes to your family, you do things you would never do.
COMPUTER SCAMS
These are common, but simple to combat against. You will be working on your computer, and a popup will come onto your screen indicating that it has detected a virus, and “click here” to delete it. So, you click on it, and what you do not know is that you just allowed your computer to download a worm – and it can read everything on your computer, including all the credit cards that you use to pay bills, passwords to accounts and anything else.
The other scam is to get a call from someone who says they are from Microsoft, or some other well known computer company, and their security department has detected a hack of your computer, and they are here to help you. All you need to do is allow them to have control of your computer via an online link, and they will delete the hack software. What you have just done is allow the person on the phone to have complete access to anything that is contained on your computer.
HOW DO WE PROTECT OURSELVES
Protection is relatively simple by following these steps:
• First is what I call the gut test. If something does not feel right, TRUST YOUR GUT!!!
• If you do not recognize a phone number, don’t answer it. While this may cause some calls from people you want to talk to go unanswered, if they really want to talk to you, they will leave a message asking you to call back. Scammers do not leave messages.
• If you do answer the call, and you do not know the caller, and the caller wants to engage you in conversation, STOP. They are most likely trying to get your voice characteristics to create AI voice prints. Either hang up, or what I do is just lay the phone down. This serves two purposes. First is occupies the line, keeping them from calling others, even for a short time. Second, they will talk to dead air and then get frustrated when they realize they have wasted their time. (Most of these callers, usually from foreign countries, are paid a percentage of what they con you out of.)
• If you are on your computer and get a popup. NEVER OK ANY LINK. X out of the box. It is also advisable to periodically clean out your cache and other memory, in the event that someone has been able to install some type of link. There are many companies that have programs that will block unwanted spam and clean your system on a regular schedule. While some are expensive, there are many that are free and don’t have a lot of bells and whistles, but do protect your computers.
• Finally, never allow anyone to remotely access your computer. Even if you called a company, be cautious. Some months ago, I called McAfee, who was at the time my software protection provider. It turns out that the phone number that was listed online in a Google search was a hacked link, and if I had not been very suspicious, I would have been a victim.
It is easy to become so paranoid that you don’t want to answer a phone, or get on your computer. I always tell people, don’t become so afraid that you quit enjoying life. Just use your common sense and caution. I hope this helps to protect you, your family and others from becoming the victim of the scams that are unfortunately so prevalent today.
Ed Buns
Retired Hamilton, Ohio Police
Section 22 Board Member
