In her article for New York Magazine’s the Cut, journalist Charlotte Cowles describes in detail how she fell for an elaborate scam that used fear, technology and her data to convince her it was real. A caller posed as someone from Amazon, then transferred her to someone posing as a Federal Trade Commission liaison, then someone claiming to be from the CIA and finally the scammers convinced her to withdraw cash and hand it over to a stranger outside her home.
The end result sounds wild on its own, but broken down step by step the scam did include the kinds of convincing details that frequently trick people. Here’s what we can all learn from this scam.
When our phone rings and the screen says “Mom,” we don’t have any reason to doubt it. Caller ID technology has been around since landlines — and for the most part is accurate and helpful. However, scammers have technology that lets them “spoof” any number to fake where a call is coming from. They can imitate a family member, government agency or in the case of Cowles, a well-known company such as Amazon. They can even spoof a location, convincing you it’s a local call from an unknown number.
Don’t assume that a call is legitimate just because the caller ID says it’s the police, Apple, the IRS or even someone you know. If there is anything slightly off about the conversation, hang up and call the person or organization back directly using a number you look up separately.
Scammers are also able to spoof the voices of specific people using AI. While it’s not yet widespread, this is another technique to be aware of.
Scammers have all your private information
We tend to think of scams as targeting people at…
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