Google Listing, Political Scams Top Phone Fraud Threats
Nearly 20 percent of all phone fraud calls hitting consumers and businesses this year are part of the fake Google listing scam, more than twice as many as the eight percent that are loan scam calls, according to new data released by Pindrop Labs. The Google listing scam is a relatively new one, having appeared just […]
Seven Jailed in Massive Phone Fraud Scam
Authorities in the U.K. have sentenced seven people to prison for their part in running a wide-ranging phone fraud scam that cost victims more than £1.3 million over the course of several years. The scheme that the gang ran is a common and highly successful one that involves making calls to potential victims and telling them that […]
FTC Shuts Down Fake Charity Phone Scam
Phone fraud comes in many forms, as most crimes do, and it’s not always obvious that a particular version is actually a crime. The FTC has just shut down a company that was running a specific kind of phone fraud scam that involved pressuring victims to make donations to a fake charity for disabled people […]
Phone Fraud Scam Targets College Students For ‘Federal Student Tax’
The Federal Trade Commission is warning about a new variant on phone fraud scams that attempts to bully college students into paying a non-existent student tax. The scam is similar to many of the IRS phone scams that have been ongoing for several years, but with the novelty of pressuring students who likely are much […]
FBI: CEO Email Scams Cost U.S. Businesses $246M
Businesses in the United States lost more than $246 million to business email compromise attacks in 2015, dwarfing the losses to any other kind of attack, including phishing, vishing, ransomware, and credit card fraud. BEC scams involve a twist on the typical phishing emails, and aim to trick executives or finance employees who have authority […]
Data Shows Phone Fraud Costing Businesses as Much as $27M a Year
Last year, about one in every 1,700 calls to a corporate call center in the United States was from a fraudster, and those malicious calls can cost large organizations as much as $27 million per year, new research shows. The rate of phone fraud in corporate call centers has jumped by more than 45 percent in the last […]
On the Wire Podcast: Chris Hadnagy
In this episode of the On the Wire podcast, Dennis Fisher talks with Chris Hadnagy of Social-Engineer Inc., about the concept of social engineering, how he got into the field, and how social engineering techniques are used by attackers. Chris talks about the way phishing has evolved in recent years, the rise of phone fraud […]
Jolly Roger and the Rise of the Anti-Bot Bots
A bot that started as a way for one man to annoy and frustrate telemarketers and robocallers has now developed into a subscription service for consumers and businesses who have had enough of the unsolicited and sometimes fraudulent calls. The Jolly Roger Telephone Co. is the creation of Roger Anderson, a phone industry veteran who […]
Hear a Real Bank Phone Fraud Call From a Fake Cop
The ongoing problem of fraudsters targeting senior citizens with sophisticated phone scams has taken a new turn, as the criminals have begun using a technique that involves them showing up at victims’ homes to collect their debit cards. The scam is an extension of a common phone fraud technique in which criminals call victims–typically senior […]