What's interesting to me is these scammers are now doing "inbound" scams vs just cold-calling outbound scams. This guy called the scammers directly after googling the customer service # for microsoft and calling the number that popped up on google ads, which was scammers. I've tried to train my mom to not answer calls from unknown numbers and to verify any customer service # by googling the company and finding it on their website. Now we need to discuss not to do that also!
As more companies get rid of phone support and move to online chatbots I feel like it's an opportunity for phone-scammers to advertise their numbers and capture leads from elderly who aren't inclined to use chat-based support. :-/
> Americans over age 60 lost roughly $982 million last year to tech support scams alone, one of the more lucrative frauds, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. That figure is up 66 percent from 2023, but it’s still just a fraction of the estimated $16.6 billion cybercriminals took in 2024 overall, up 33 percent from the year before, and widely viewed as an under representation since so much fraud goes unreported.
randycupertino•1mo ago
What's interesting to me is these scammers are now doing "inbound" scams vs just cold-calling outbound scams. This guy called the scammers directly after googling the customer service # for microsoft and calling the number that popped up on google ads, which was scammers. I've tried to train my mom to not answer calls from unknown numbers and to verify any customer service # by googling the company and finding it on their website. Now we need to discuss not to do that also!
As more companies get rid of phone support and move to online chatbots I feel like it's an opportunity for phone-scammers to advertise their numbers and capture leads from elderly who aren't inclined to use chat-based support. :-/
> Americans over age 60 lost roughly $982 million last year to tech support scams alone, one of the more lucrative frauds, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. That figure is up 66 percent from 2023, but it’s still just a fraction of the estimated $16.6 billion cybercriminals took in 2024 overall, up 33 percent from the year before, and widely viewed as an under representation since so much fraud goes unreported.