The holidays are coming and so are the scammers
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Two things prompted me to write this story First was my recalling one year ago when I got taken for $400 on an "imposter scam" involving my buying gift cards for a friend's supposed dying cousin. Second stimulus was a news release from the regional FBI office in Salt Lake City describing an uptick in "Phantom Hacker attacks" (where a scammer poses as an unknown government or financial institution worker trying to prevent a hack or scam) that tend to focus on senior citizens. These two types of scams are growing at an alarming rate and the gift giving holidays seem to bring out the worst in the criminals looking for prey.
Just a couple of statistics about scamming
Alert readers are well aware that there is overwhelming data about the "who, how and what is the cost" of scamming. Without trying to put too fine a point on it, the Federal Trade Commission reported in 2022 Americans lost "$8.8 billion to fraud, up more than 30% from the previous year." That trend continues at even a faster rate of expansion for 2023. Senior citizens do not have the highest rate of reporting scammer attacks but seniors do experience the highest amount of loss per attack. Seniors are typically targeted because they often have the most assets to lose-lifetime investments, pension plans, savings and checking accounts accrued over many years. As the age of scammed victims increases so does the amount of money lost per scam.
Statistically Montanans do pretty well against scammers. In the FBI's 2022 ranking of states by the number of scams reported, Montana was ranked 47th, bettered only by Wyoming and North Dakota. That low number of reported scams might be largely a result of our being one of the lesser populated states. Another important statistic is the Treasure State's most often reported scam is "imposter scams," the type being warned about in the latest FBI news release.
While national and state statistics about scamming are readily available not much is tracked regarding scamming attempts at the local level. I reached out to Chris Adair, Blaine County's Undersheriff, about scamming in our area. He said, "We get those scams a lot here too." He noted a local resident reported being called by the "Blaine County Tax Department" asking for financial information. That's the classic Phantom Hacker ploy the FBI news release described-a person posing as a government representative trying to "help" a victim to protect their financial belongings while in fact trying to get information that would allow the scammer access to the target's financial holdings. I would guess most alert readers have encountered one or more locals who have been scammed, most likely by an imposter scammer.
What you can do to avoid being scammed
Again, there are lists and lists of "how to protect yourself from scammers" so I won't get in to all of those. However, there are some basic things we all can do to protect ourselves from scammers. Here are some actions one can take to avoid being a victim of a scam. These suggestions are from informed sources.
One series of ways to identify a scammer I had not seen before involves "identifying red flags." When these flags occur in phone calls, texts or emails, you may be dealing with a scammer. First flag is someone posing as a representative of a trusted institution (your bank) or a government office-the classic Phantom Scammer. Chris Adair, with the local sheriff's office said, "No county government office will call you asking for payment or financial information. If that happens, hang up and contact the office that supposedly made the call." When in doubt if a call is legitimate, hanging up is always the best tactic to protect yourself.
A related new thing is "pop-ups" (see graphic with this article) on your computer screen alerting you that someone is trying to steal from you. You are urged to call a number on the screen immediately to deal with the problem. (I got one of those messages that locked up my laptop until I turned everything off and restarted my machine). Again, no legitimate organization will use pop-ups to alert you to a problem.
Another red flag is a caller with a "sense of urgency" Scammers will fabricate deadlines you must meet, share urgent messages and set time limits in which you must act to avoid a financial calamity. When feeling you are in a time crunch and being asked to "hit a button now" to stop the calls or take immediate action, best to hang up the phone or leave a questionable site on your computer.
A related scam I've encountered is some reference about an inability to deliver a package you ordered that cannot be delivered. This came as an email and sounded very much like a legitimate delivery service. I knew we were not expecting any packages and deleted the email. Experts say this is a classic tactic known as phishing where a scammer tries to establish a relationship with a potential victim with some 'safe questions' that will lead to getting more vital financial information.
What if you do get scammed?
I posed the question of how to report being scammed to Chris Adair with the local sheriff's office. He said it was good for local law enforcement to know about suspicious calls or contacts but added, "We always report scams to the FBI's "ic3" website. This is the most comprehensive tracking of scamming activities." The FBI encourages citizens to directly report scamming activity to the ic3 website at: http://www.ic3.gov.
And remember, when in doubt about a message or its source: hang up the phone; leave questionable websites or turn off your computer. Those are the surest ways to stop a scammer before they can take advantage of you.
