We all remember the “I’m an African Prince, and I have money to send you!” emails from back in the day. While those haven’t been making the rounds as frequently in recent years, chances are, you’ve seen a variety of different ones. Text scams, email scams, phone calls from your financial institutions. They’re getting savvy, and in a world where so many of our customer service jobs are outsourced to different countries, one can’t assume there’s any difference between the call center who answers your calls, and the person who’s now on the phone with you, telling you your card has been stolen.
In the last 30 days, myself, my husband, family members and friends have all shared stories and screenshots asking “Is this fraud? Does this look weird to you?” In Real Estate, we don’t go a single day, or sign a single document without going over fraud disclosures, and for good reason. These scams have been nearly doubling in recent years, exceeding $10 BILLION in losses in 2023 alone. The Federal Trade Commission’s 2023 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book provides a breakdown of the data, including reports, methods, and statistics that are really eye opening. For example, 44% of younger people (aged 20-29) reported losing money, compared to 25% of older people (aged 70-79), HOWEVER the median loss for the older generations is much higher. Until I read that statistic I thought for sure Boomers were the ones primarily falling for these scams. Nope! Even us younger folk are being tricked!
This report is a massive collaboration of many government agencies and private corporations, like the Office of the Inspector General, The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), UPS, and AARP to name a few.
Having experienced a scam, and spoken to many people who’ve been on the receiving end of one, there’s always a common thread – shame. Victims are embarrassed that they fell into the trap, and they’re even more reluctant to talk about it when they’ve suffered a financial loss. It’s an incredibly violating experience. It leaves you feeling stupid, and vulnerable, and when you couple it with the loss of money, it’s even more painful.
There were $2.6M FTC fraud reports in 2023, with 27% reporting a financial loss. I feel it’s reasonable to assume that these numbers in reality are much higher, because people don’t know how to, and are afraid to report the embarrassment, and be truthful about the financial damages. And remember, this is ONLY information reported in the USA!
Last fall, news channels reported a massive data breach – 3B people (about ⅓ of the world population) had their personal information stolen, and every Social Security Number was in there (source: National Cybersecurity Alliance). Data is currency, and we need to be doing everything we possibly can to protect our data the way we protect our banking info.
This blog is kicking off a series of following posts sharing scams we’ve experienced, plus tools to protect yourself going forward. This information is relevant to everyone, so go ahead and make sure your friends and family get a copy of this, too. The more information we can share, the safer we make ourselves and our community.