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The phone rings and the voice on the other end sounds awfully like your grandchild. The person says they experienced an emergency, such as an accident or an arrest, and need you to send them money immediately by either a wire, through cryptocurrency or via pre-paid gift cards. Overcome by the stress of the situation and the panic in your grandchild’s voice, it’s no surprise fraudsters are often successful in using this ploy to separate caring individuals from their money. How do they do it? Let’s find out!
With the continued advancement of AI technologies, fraudsters are adapting and creating new techniques that prey on a person’s emotions. Using only a sentence or two of a voice sample, these scammers can modify tone and create full dialogues recreating a voice. To add to the complexity of the scam, these scammers can spoof caller ID to make it look as if a specific person is making the phone call. These added layers can make it difficult to recognize the scam at first. If you ever find yourself on the receiving end of an emergency call like this, and you’re torn between helping out a loved one or hanging up, here are some tips:
- In the heat of the moment, it’s easy to act, but pause and take a moment to see if things are adding up.
- Call your grandchild back on a direct line that you know is theirs. If they don’t pick up, call another family member or friend on a known number to verify the situation.
- If you are told to send money via a wire, crypto, or pre-paid gift cards, don’t. Those are immediate red flags that a scam is occurring.
- Lastly, make sure to report it to the FTC and where applicable, your financial institution. These reports help law enforcement partners support investigations and prevent fraud from occurring.
