We are constantly with our cell phones. It is a digital leash that we are now accustomed to.
The question is, do you know if the caller really is the person they claim to be?
Here is a great example of what I mean:
A C-Level employee from an unnamed company was barraged with a ton of WhatsApp notifications and messages that appeared to come from the CEO. The employee, let’s call him John for anonymity’s sake, did not recognize the number from the messages. He felt something was off, and so he took the call from his boss. He asked the caller, to whom he spoke to a few days earlier, something that only they would have known about.
He apologized to his boss and said that he needed to make sure he was who he said he was. Then the caller hung up.
Major fraud was avoided. This was reported by Bloomberg.
If you think that this is a one-off occurrence, think again. From the dawn of telephones, people have been trying to trick others into believing the caller is someone they are not.
All of these attacks involve the target answering the call. Once you have answered the call, the bad actors will try everything that they can to pressure you and stress you out to get what they want.
Chances are you have heard of the scams before, but let’s go through a couple “tells.”
- The authorities will not call you and tell you that there is a warrant out for your arrest, and they are not going to tell you that you can make it go away with a payment, or even leave nasty voicemails for you.
- There is a very small probability that you will be called from your healthcare provider demanding your payment without first receiving a bill.
- Be wary of a person who claims to be from your job, or online tech support, or even your bank. None of these will call you and ask you to verify your information, or ask you to hand over a security code that was sent to your phone.
In the case above, John was going to ask his “boss” about something they talked on earlier. Granted, he never got the chance. However, you are a target too. The “tells” above are just a few ways you might be scammed. On the smaller end, in your personal life, you may be faced with someone claiming to be a friend in trouble. Some people have thought about this and have created a “safe” word or phrase that they can use to prove that they are who they say they are. The other good idea is to go a step further and come up with a phrase that can be used if you are under duress.
When, not IF, you are in any of these situations, stay calm and think it through:
If the bank calls you and asks you to verify your account infiltration, hang up and call the number on the back of your debit card. Verify your information that way.
If a company calls you and things just do not feel right, hang up and look at the organizations’ website. NOT just Google Search.
If you get a call saying that someone has logged into your accounts, go to the website or app and verify for yourself that this has happened. Do this before you take further action. The big 5 (Google, Facebook etc.) will not call you, they will rely on the customer support portals.
Take that breath and think things through before you share any information about yourself.
I have been getting calls from a “voice verification department” asking me to make sure I am me. I hang up. If you answer the phone and there is a delay, pay attention to that. Make that the first red flag.
Think. Then react.
As always, please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns.
Stay Safe Out There!