Imposter scams have long been among the most lucrative for scammers. While there are many variations of this scam, the most common variations have involved scammers emailing their victims posing as a popular company with which we all do business or calling their intended victims on the telephone posing as some governmental agency such as the IRS or the Social Security Administration. The scammer then, under a wide variety of pretenses, demands an immediate payment by gift cards, credit card or wired funds. Being asked to pay by gift cards is a definite indication that the call is a scam since no company or governmental agency requests or accepts payments by gift cards.
Recently the FTC issued a report indicating that the company most impersonated by scammers is Best Buy or its Geek Squad tech support. In tomorrow's Scam of the day I will show you one of the imposter emails used by scammers posing as the Geek Squad.
Not surprisingly the second most impersonated company is Amazon with PayPal as number three. Additionally while Geek Squad, Amazon and PayPal are the most impersonated, people lost the most money to imposter scams where the scammers posed as Microsoft and Publishers Clearing House.
TIPS
As I have often reminded you, whenever you are contacted by phone call, email or a text message you can never be sure who is actually contacting you. B.S. Be skeptical. Through the simple technique of "spoofing" it is very easy for a scammer to manipulate your Caller ID to make a call coming to you appear legitimate when it is not. Therefore you can never truly trust your Caller ID. Trust me, you can't trust anyone. Email addresses can also be made to appear legitimate as can text messages when they are actually coming from a scammer.
Never click on a link, download an attachment, provide personal information or make a payment in response to an email, text message or phone call unless you have absolutely confirmed that the communication is legitimate.
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Technology in general and AI in particular has enabled scammers to make their scams via phone calls, text messages, or emails much more believable. Fortunately, technology can also be used to help individuals avoid becoming scam victims. ScamAssist® from
Iris® Powered by Generali uses advanced technology coupled with actual human intelligence to recognize and flag scam solicitations – individuals simply need to submit the dubious solicitation online or by phone. Iris' experts analyze the suspicious messages using rigorous technology, comparing them to known scams and phishing schemes. The team then sends a detailed assessment of the likelihood of the message being a scam and recommended next steps to minimize the damage. ScamAssist is easy to use and can be a lifesaver – for individuals as well as a business in an industry prone to scams. While
Iris® Powered by Generali doesn't offer ScamAssist for direct purchase, if you're a business professional looking to offer a standalone scam assistance micro-experience or bundle it with a product package to help provide customers a service they'll truly value, contact Iris to learn how you can get started. Create a seamless experience for your customers by offering ScamAssist in your branding. Contact Iris at
IrisIdentityProtection.com/Scamicide to learn more.
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