Not long ago, I received and opened my first-ever smishing text message on my smartphone. The message purported to be from a Bay Area road-toll collection agency claiming I had unpaid toll charges and threatened fines if I didn’t pay up immediately by clicking on the link included in the text message.
While way more sophisticated than emails from a wealthy Nigerian prince, this smishing text was just the latest in an ever-increasing number of online, email, texting or telephone cybercrime scams — many of which target older victims. Your children and grandchildren with phones are being targeted, too.
“Cybercrime has become increasingly transnational, sophisticated and manipulative, especially due to AI,” says Assistant United States Attorney Lisa Feldman with the U.S. Department of Justice in Los Angeles. “Anyone — even extremely financially savvy people — can become a victim. There are so many scams out there that we cannot prosecute our way out of them. So the most effective way to combat them is with awareness and education. And then to pass on what they’ve learned to their family, friends and community members.”
The term smishing is a combination of phishing cybercrime attempts using SMS text messages; phishing refers to someone impersonating someone else — sometimes a company representative or a possible love interest — in email, telephone or text message scams to trick you into sharing sensitive personal identifying information, banking or credit card details and passwords, sending money or installing malware. “Phishing” derives from the use of persuasive lures to “fish” for sensitive information that can result in identity theft and financial loss (phishing.org/what-is-phishing).
“We all need to be extra vigilant because many of us, regardless of age, are vulnerable to those phishing lures because they’re incredibly persuasive,” Feldman said during an entertaining and helpful presentation titled “Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes” on March 13 at a Cal Poly Humboldt Emeritus Faculty and Staff lunch meeting.
Feldman got our attention quickly by revealing just how much money and how many (especially older) victims are involved in these crimes. Just between July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024, the Department of Justice charged more than 700 defendants with stealing nearly $700 million from more than 225,000 older victims, according to its recently released sixth Annual Report to Congress on its elder justice activities.
In 2023, losses topped $3.4 billion in 880,000 complaints of cybercrime scams to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), including those reported by people over the age of 60 — an almost 11-percent increase in reported losses from 2022. This represented a 14-percent increase in complaints filed with IC3 by elder victims.
“Cybercrime scams are so successful because they’re hard to detect as scams as they originate with transnational organizations, they’re often very realistic looking and they’re extraordinarily manipulative,” said Feldman. She next outlined how to recognize some of the most common “red flags” in cybercrime scams appearing online or in your emails, phone calls or text messages:
• “Act now” appeals urging you to act quickly or click on a link immediately, either out of fear, uncertainty or excitement over an unusual problem or prize opportunity.
• “Confidence” scams, citing the example of a stranger on a phone call or text with you who claims they accidentally called the wrong phone number and then proceeds to make attempts to build up friendships over time.
• Scammers requesting you pay with gift cards, wire transfers, cash, cryptocurrency or payment app (paying with any of these makes it difficult to get your money back).
• Requests made online or on the phone for secrecy, or isolation tactics such as, “Don’t tell anyone” or “Don’t contact others.”
• Extraordinary offers or payouts that sound too good to be true, such as, “You’re a sweepstakes winner.”
• Imposter calls, such as the ones from someone pretending to be a family member or grandchild in trouble, in jail, in an accident and needing money or their banking account is frozen — all asking for help and please send money or account information and password. These frauds, referred to as “grandparent schemes,” are even harder to detect because the voices on the phone are often the actual voices of grandchildren, which scammers took from social media accounts and manipulated using artificial intelligence.
• “Tech support” messages that pop up on your computer screen requiring you to click on “help” links or calling a phone number to fix a supposed problem. The purpose of this scam is to convince the victim to give the scammer remote access to the victim’s computer to steal account information and money in bank accounts.
• Online romance/dating “catfishing” where perpetrators (referred to as catfish) typically use fake photos and identities and false stories about their personal lives to deceive and mislead a victim into an online romantic relationship to eventually defraud the victim.
• Business-related emails, phone calls or any online appeal offering to help with investing or types of business transactions that usually end up asking you to make wire transfers of money. Usually in these cases the email address, CallerID or website is “spoofed” to look legitimate, but actually belongs to the scammer.
Feldman ended her presentation with very specific advice on how to stay safe and avoid being scammed:
• Don’t click on any links or attachments in any email or text messages asking for personal information. They may send you to a phishing site or contain malware.
• Don’t reply to unsolicited emails or appeals on the phone, since those may be the product of someone posing as a legitimate institution. Feldman advised instead going to the actual source’s website, or call the number on the back of your credit card or account statement, and contact the company at that known number to see if the problem or issue is legitimate.
• “Gift cards are for gifts only,” warned Feldman. Scammers will often ask for payment via gift cards, cash, wire transfer, cryptocurrency or payment app. All should be considered red flags.
• Be proactive before being scammed with imposter scams, especially grandparent scams, by preparing a family code word in advance that you could use to confirm whoever is contacting you is really a family member. In any case, always hang up and call your family member back to verify that it was them who called.
• As for online romance warning signs, eventually your new online romantic interest will ask you for money, and they will have excuses as to why they can’t meet up in person. Block them from your phone and social media.
• Pause and take a deep breath before you click or act on anything. If you’re suspicious about something being too good to be true, trust your instincts.
• If in doubt about an appeal or offer, stay vigilant and ask someone you trust about it. When you learn about a scam, spread the word and make awareness of it go viral.
• Ignore messages or appeals just because they may contain personal information such as your address, date of birth or social security number (such stolen information is readily available for scammers).
• Let phone calls go to voicemail if you don’t recognize the source or phone number on your smartphone or landline and then evaluate if it’s a scam. If you do pick up and suspect the call is a scam, quickly come up with an excuse to get off the phone and hang up.
• With suspicious email messages, carefully hover your mouse over the sender’s email or web address and compare it to the name of the “source” in the message (be aware that in some instances the scam email address may look similar to the real source’s email address except that one number has been added). Learn how to delete, block and report scam messages.
• Never withdraw cash in response to any scam appeals.
• Be much more wary of any cryptocurrency investment and especially the so-called “Pig Butchering” scam involving online investment apps or websites. (Feldman recommended watching John Oliver’s show about the “pig butchering” scam at youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=pLPpl2ISKTg ). She also warned that victims also need to be aware of fake “recovery specialists.”
• To stay aware of current scams and help guard your personal info against con artists, sign up for online newsletters and follow the advice from the Federal Trade Commission (consumer.ftc.gov/articles/protect-your-personal-information-hackers-and-scammers). Smartphones and messaging apps have built-in tools for limiting the amount of spam you see and then you should block the number for the spam calls you do get. Be more careful with sharing your cell phone number on forms or in any kind of communication, including your social media profiles.
Feldman’s final advice: “If you or anyone you know (older or not) is a victim of one of these cybercrime scams, report it to the FBI at ic3.gov or call the National Elder Fraud Hotline at (833) FRAUD–11 [(833) 372–8311].” And if you wired money as a result of scam, report it to your bank as soon as possible, ideally within 24 to 72 hours, and the bank may be able to freeze those funds and reverse the wire (assuming the fraudster hasn’t yet withdrawn or transferred the funds received). Also report the wire to IC3, which has a recovery asset team that works with banks to try and freeze funds wired due to scams when discovered quickly enough.
As for my first experience with a toll collection agency smishing scam, I didn’t fall for it because I realized I hadn’t recently driven on any toll roads or bridges and knew any actual highway toll notices usually take the form of a letter in the mail. And just a few days ago, I received three more smishing texts on my cell phone, so spread the word on how to avoid being scammed and block these text callers.
Editor’s Note: In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted the news editor of this publication has received toll violation smishing text messages weekly for months now. The first were so convincing they prompted him to call and check online to make sure he did not have an unpaid violation.Mark Larson (he/him) is a retired HSU journalism professor and active freelance photographer.
This article appears in Portrait of a Prairie.