Plus, the most common scams to be aware of.
Last year alone, 59.4 million Americans became a victim of a phone scam. The average loss reported was $502, according to the app Truecaller, up from an average of $351 the year before. Scammers are getting smarter and their ploys are becoming more sophisticated, says Clayton LiaBraaten, a senior strategic advisor at Truecaller.
“They’re generating millions of calls a day, and they just have to get a few bites to be successful,” LiaBraaten tells us.
We’re taking a closer look at how robocalls and other forms of fraud occur, what types of scams are becoming more common, and how to protect yourself.
Why are phone scams on the rise?
Have you gotten more bogus offers for free cruises or to renew your car’s warranty lately? You’re not alone. Robocalls and robotexts have been steadily increasing for years as more and more people own cell phones and with the emergence of new technology that makes sending scam calls easier than ever, LiaBraaten says. Truecaller estimates that last year Americans lost nearly $30 billion to phone scams.
“The cost of making millions of calls a day has gone down significantly,” he says.
Scammers often employ a “brute-force” technique, in which they use software to call “every permutation of every U.S. number in every area code” asking for credit card information or money, LiaBraaten says. Or they can take a more targeted approach….
