Everyone has received calls from numbers they don’t recognize, and picked up, only to hear a robot telling them they won a free gift and just need to give their credit card number to claim it. These sorts of scams are known as phone scams. It is important to be able to recognize what a phone scam is, and how to avoid one, especially with advancements of AI and the prevalence of number spoofing.
Phone scams are typically received as a call but can also be seen as a text message. The goal of these scams is similar to the goal of phishing, where the scammer will attempt to get you to divulge sensitive information about yourself. However, most phone scams will directly try to get money from you by demanding payment via gift cards, wire transfers, or crypto. As a rule, no business will ever ask for your bank account information, gift cards, or crypto, over the phone.
Another important thing to note about these scams is that they can come from a number you trust, thanks to number spoofing. Number spoofing is where a scammer will change the outgoing phone number so that you see a different number than the one that is actually calling you. This can be used to make the scammer seem like an actual bank, credit card provider, company, or even individual. Even worse is that some scammers are now using AI to make generated voices and impersonate their victims’ loved ones to demand payment.
Phone scams are on the rise, in fact, according to Comparitech, the average US citizen receives 14 scam calls per month, and the average call cost the victim $567.41. Below is a calculator to show how many calls you’ve received, and how much you could have lost, based on how long you’ve owned your phone.