Latest news with #imposters
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Scam Alert: Older Adults Losing Over $100K To Imposters Has Exploded 8-Fold In 4 Years
If you think scams only happen to other people, think again. The Federal Trade Commission recently shared some shocking news: in just the last four years, the amount of money lost by older adults to imposters has skyrocketed. Specifically, the number of older adults who lost more than $100,000 — each — has increased eightfold since 2020. That's hundreds of millions of dollars gone to scammers pretending to be from trusted places like the government or big companies. Don't Miss: The same firms that backed Uber, Venmo and eBay are investing in this pre-IPO company disrupting a $1.8T market — 'Scrolling To UBI' — Deloitte's #1 fastest-growing software company allows users to earn money on their phones. You can Why Are Older Adults Being Targeted? Scammers know older adults often have savings and might be more trusting or less familiar with the latest scam tricks. While younger people also get targeted, the FTC says it's the older folks who report the really big losses — sometimes their entire life savings. In fact, total losses over $100,000 went from $55 million in 2020 to a staggering $445 million in 2024. The Scams Tell the Same Three Lies Most of these scams follow familiar patterns. The FTC reports three things that scammers typically say: "Someone is using your accounts." You get a call or message saying they're from your bank or a company like Amazon, warning you that someone's messing with your money. "Your information is being used to commit crimes." They claim they're government officials and say your Social Security number or other details are being used in illegal activities like drug trafficking or money laundering. "There's a security problem with your computer." You might see a fake alert pop up on your screen telling you to call a number because your computer has been hacked. Trending: If there was a new fund backed by Jeff Bezos offering a ? Sometimes, scammers even pretend to be with the FTC itself. They'll tell you to send money to Bitcoin ATMs or hand cash or gold to couriers — something the real FTC would never ask you to do. How to Stay Safe The good news? There are simple steps the FTC recommends to protect yourself: Don't move your money just because someone tells you to. No matter how official they sound, don't transfer or send money after an unexpected call or message. Hang up and check. If you're contacted by someone claiming to be from a government agency or company, call the official number listed on their website — not the one they gave you. Use call blocking tools. These can help stop scam calls before they even reach the FTC will never call and demand money, threaten you, or ask you to transfer funds. If you think you've been targeted, report it at What This Means for You Scammers are getting bolder, and the losses are getting bigger, especially for older adults. Staying alert and knowing the common tricks can help you protect your money and peace of mind. If a call or message sounds fishy or urgent, take a moment to verify it before doing anything. Your savings — and your sanity — are worth it. Read Next: In a $34 Trillion Debt Era, The Right AI Could Be Your Financial Advantage — Image: Shutterstock Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge's one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights that can set you ahead in today's competitive market. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? APPLE (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report TESLA (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report This article Scam Alert: Older Adults Losing Over $100K To Imposters Has Exploded 8-Fold In 4 Years originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Errore nel recupero dei dati Effettua l'accesso per consultare il tuo portafoglio Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati
Fast Company
08-08-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
This con is robbing seniors blind — and growing fast
The number of older Americans getting scammed out of their savings has exploded over the last four years. A new report from the FTC details how scams targeting adults over the age of 60 have proliferated, with losses over $100,000 more than three times as likely to affect older people. 'Some people 60+ have reported emptying their bank accounts and even clearing out their 401ks,' the FTC's Division of Consumer Response and Operations wrote. 'While younger people report losing money to these imposters too, reports of losses in the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars are much more likely to be filed by older adults, and those numbers have soared.' Last year, 8,269 older adults filed a loss of $10,000 or more, more than four times as many reports as the FTC received in the same category in 2020. In 2024, older adults who lost $100,000 or more through a scam reported combined losses of more than $445 million, up from $55 million in 2020. Most of the scammers take a similar approach, reaching out to an unsuspecting victim about a fake, time-sensitive problem that can only be resolved if they transfer money, ultimately landing it in the hands of unscrupulous strangers. Those requests can be dressed up in a variety of ways, but they often rely on a phone call to kick things off, reeling the victim in with false urgency and keeping them chatting while setting up the scam. Last year, 41% of older adults who lost more than $10,000 through scams impersonating businesses and the government were ensnared with a phone call as the initial contact method. An online ad or pop-up ad often imitating a security alert was the first point of contact for 15% of people in the same group, and 13% reported an email as the initial method of contact. 'Even when they don't start with a call, reports show the goal is to get you on the phone,' the FTC wrote. 'A call is still the best way to dial up the fear and the urgency so it's harder for you to think clearly and check things out.' What are the scams? Scams evolve constantly, but there are some consistent themes across high-loss scams to watch out for that the new report highlights. First, scammers often impersonate banks or major companies like Amazon and claim that your account is linked to suspicious activity. Second, they might claim to be a government official to warn you that your Social Security number or another official identification you hold has been used for illegal activity, like drug smuggling or money laundering. The third common approach is scammers impersonating a company like Apple or Microsoft with an on-screen security alert that your account has been hacked. In those attacks, the scammers provide you a number to call and they move the scam along from the phone call. The FTC also notes that scammers often pretend to be the agency itself, requesting that victims transfer money, put cash into Bitcoin ATMs or even complete in-person cash hand-offs. 'Regardless of the fake story, the goal is generally the same: to get your money,' the FTC report said. Why are scams spiking now? The FTC report didn't explore the forces behind the scams, but most signs point to technology as an accelerant. AI is still a relatively new technology, but it's already a powerful tool for scammers seeking to fool victims into handing over cash or personal information. With AI, scammers can smoothly impersonate the voice and even the appearance of someone you know, establishing trust easily. In one targeted attack, a Hong Kong-based finance employee transferred $25 million to scammers who posed as his company's CFO using deepfaked video. Beyond AI, cryptocurrency remains such a major vector for fraud that the FBI launched an operation last year to reach potential victims early before they empty their savings into fake investments. 'Some victims have reported that—prior to being notified by the FBI about the scam—they were in the process of liquidating their 401K, selling their home, or obtaining a sizeable loan,' according to the FBI. In a recent FBI report on internet crime, the agency detailed how the attack surface for online scams has grown 'exponentially' as the internet has become woven into every aspect of our lives. 'Scammers are increasingly using the Internet to steal Americans' hard-earned savings,' FBI Operations Director for Criminal and Cyber B. Chad Yarbrough wrote. 'And with today's technology, it can take mere taps on a keyboard to hijack networks, cripple water systems, or even rob virtual exchanges.' To steer clear of scams online, you can follow a few basic rules that go a long way toward keeping your money in the bank. Blocking unwanted and spam calls can help screen out some of this communication to begin with. Never send money to anyone in response to a surprise message, call or alert – acting with a sense of urgency is always to the scammer's benefit. If you get a call out of the blue that sounds fishy, hang up and verify the source by directly contacting the person or company through official channels, not the phone number they provided.
Globe and Mail
22-06-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Scammers are impersonating finance experts to steal millions – and the real ones are struggling to stop it
Last week, Bank of Montreal chief investment strategist Brian Belski became the latest finance heavyweight to warn his social-media followers about imposters posing as him to scam investors. Mr. Belski alluded to bogus Instagram and Facebook ads under the account name 'BMO Belski,' which sought to lure users to investment groups on WhatsApp through AI-generated videos and other content. 'To be clear: I only post from this official LinkedIn account and do not engage on other social platforms,' the real Mr. Belski wrote on LinkedIn. To those who've seen the hyper-realistic videos purporting to show Mr. Belski turning his head from side to side, promising to 'share three stock picks and the latest market insights every day' with his WhatsApp community, this may have come as a surprise. While scams impersonating celebrities and politicians have proliferated for years, fraud targeting investors through fake advice from big names in finance is now multiplying, with the real experts struggling to get the content taken down. Law enforcement, legal experts and social-media giants are split on who should take the blame. Last week, prominent Bay Street economist David Rosenberg spoke out about a scam that used his identity, telling The Globe and Mail that several investors reported collective losses to his firm exceeding $1-million. Victims were lured to WhatsApp groups recommending stocks that swung dramatically in price, creating the illusion of quick profits. Once investors put in more money, the stocks' prices plummeted. Mr. Rosenberg and his firm reported the scam to both Meta Platforms Inc. and the police but eventually went public after the ads continued to circulate for months. David Rosenberg says investment scam using his name bilked victims out of hundreds of thousands of dollars Meta spokesperson Julia Perreira said the content of those ads violated the company's policies and it removes scam ads when detected. In March, Financial Times economics commentator Martin Wolf and his colleagues played 'whack-a-mole' with Meta, trying to take down deepfakes of him giving investment advice. 'The voice didn't sound fully like me,' Mr. Wolf said in an interview, adding that his avatar did look convincing otherwise. Data from Meta's Ad Library seen by Mr. Wolf and his colleagues revealed that the ad reached nearly one million users by the end of April in the EU alone. Roughly 960,000 were reached after the Financial Times first notified Meta about the deepfakes. In Canada, net losses from investment scams where the initial contact was on social media have risen 95 per cent since 2021, reaching $128.4-million last year, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. Meanwhile, the number of reported victims has fluctuated, suggesting that the scams are becoming more ambitious in how much money they steal. 'Fraud is not only becoming more common, it's becoming more convincing,' said Detective David Coffey of the Toronto Police Service's Financial Crimes Unit. 'That is really what we're seeing with AI – they're scraping the internet for these legitimate businesses and they're utilizing them to commit their own frauds.' People may also be losing more money to imposter scams because it's become difficult to grow investments the traditional way, said Tanya Walker, managing partner at Walker Law, who specializes in fraud litigation. 'Thirty years ago, interest rates could have been 16 per cent,' she said. 'For quite some time, our interest rates have been low.' She said investors may think to themselves, ' 'Why am I going to invest in a GIC with the bank at 3-per-cent interest when I could get 14 or 15 per cent?' ' Who should be held accountable for these scams is a divisive question. 'Once it gets to be a police report, it's too late,' Det. Coffey said. Most investment scams targeting Canadians are orchestrated from outside the country and across regions where local officials are not friendly to Canadian law enforcement, he said. But Kenneth Jull, partner at Gardiner Roberts LLP, specializing in financial crimes and corporate compliance, said relying on social-media companies to police their clients is both logistically and legally challenging. 'They wouldn't have the resources to do it, even if they wanted to,' he said. Under Canadian law – and similarly in the United States – social platforms have limited legal liability for users' content based on the safe harbour principle, said Mark Lokanan, a professor at Royal Roads University specializing in AI-driven financial-crime investigations. 'They are not liable as long as they do not actively curate, endorse or participate in the scam.' But the law does hold tech giants responsible when there's credible notice and willful blindness, Mr. Jull said. The case of YesUp eCommerce set a precedent. It was the first Canadian case where a server company was convicted for child pornography because of willful blindness, Mr. Jull said. In that case, YesUp was warned more than 200 times about illegal content. However, Prof. Lokanan said the burden of proof can make legal action difficult. Det. Coffey said Canada has fallen behind global peers on prevention and apprehension of imposter scams. Australia has created a national fraud-fighting agency and brought social-media and telecom companies into the fold. Australia's reported scam losses fell by almost 26 per cent in 2024 from the previous year, according to official statistics. But Mr. Jull said Canadian law enforcement can do more to work with foreign officials to apprehend perpetrators, citing the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act and its enforcement as an example. 'We don't sit back and say, 'Well, it's Russia, nothing we can do,'' he said. But Mr. Wolf's case suggests that as much as Meta may be facilitating the problem, it might be in the best position to help solve it. Shortly before Mr. Wolf published his column on the experience, Meta enrolled him in a new program that uses facial recognition to compare legitimate images of public figures against potential scam content. 'Nobody has been bringing the scam to my attention since,' Mr. Wolf said.
The Independent
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Harriet Cowan issues warning to new fans after Clarkson's Farm debut
Harriet Cowan has issued a warning to her new fans after making her debut on Clarkson's Farm. The 24-year-old was a newcomer to the Amazon show's fourth series, appearing alongside former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson on his Oxfordshire farm. Cowan was recruited due to farmhand Kaleb Cooper's professional commitments elsewhere. Taking to TikTok, Cowan alerted her followers to a negative consequence to her new-found fame — imposter accounts which have appeared online. 'I just don't want people to fall for it,' Cowan said in a green-screen video.
