Phone Scam Uses Real Phone Numbers To Steal Money, Victims Can't Get It Back

According to the spam filtering tool YouMail, Americans got 4 billion robocalls in May. In many circumstances, a con artist employs a faked phone number.

That is precisely what happened to Joanna Ganz. Her caller ID stated Chase Bank, and the person on the other end of the telephone informed her that there was unusual activity on her account. She was instructed to move funds from her account in order to avoid further fraud.

The call was a fake; it wasn't Chase phoning but a fraudster and Ganz was out more than $2,500 in minutes. "I never believed that would happen to me because that's my rent and bill money," Ganz said.

Robocalls Flood in the US, Victims Can't Get Their Money Back

Last year, the FCC mandated that all cell phone carriers use Stir-Shaken caller ID identification technology. The purpose was to prevent unauthorized robocalls. However, since then, the quantity of robocalls received by customers has returned to pre-regulation levels.

Ganz attempted to recover her money but was unsuccessful. According to a Chase spokesman, the funds will not be returned because Ganz authorized the transfer. Chase cautions clients that they would never contact and request personal information from them. They will only request it if you phone them, according to KCCI.

Americans got just less than 4 billion robocalls in May, matching the average monthly level so far this year and putting 2022 on track to receive 48 billion robocalls for the whole year. This monthly call volume was down 1.2 percent from April.

Since May had one more day than April, daily robocalls were down 3.2 percent, which is not surprising considering the Memorial Day break. In May, there were 127.2 million calls per day and 1,472 calls per second, compared to 131.4 million calls per day and 1,521 calls per second in April. This robocall volume was also about comparable to the amount in May 2021.

YouMail, a completely free robocall prevention program and call protection service for mobile phones, gave these most recent numbers. These estimates are derived from the extrapolation of robocall traffic attempting to reach YouMail's millions of active subscribers.

The source of tens of millions of robocalls from tens of thousands of different numbers is reported to have been May's most unwelcome robocall campaign. The callers appear to be selling health insurance marketplace products and appear to be breaking several telemarketing rules since they do not identify themselves, do not provide a call back number, and appear to be phoning people who did not give prior approval, according to TMC Net.

Increased in Robokiller Sending Spam Texts

Meanwhile, spam text messages, sometimes known as "smishing" for the mix of SMS and phishing, have more than quadrupled in the last three years. Robokiller projected that 87 billion of them were transmitted in 2021, a 58 percent increase over the previous year, resulting in a $10 billion loss.

The outbreak has shattered the trust fabric surrounding a crucial communication mode. Truecaller discovered that 90 percent of those polled stated they only take calls if they knew the caller's identity, even though one in every four admits to missing valid calls as a result.

The problem has resisted automated solutions with tenacity. The FCC began forcing phone companies last year to implement a set of protocols known as STIR/SHAKEN, which were designed to build a framework for authenticating the legitimacy of Caller ID information.

Even though most carriers have cooperated, research shows that fraudsters soon devised ways to circumvent the restrictions. For example, a phone call from a healthcare provider, which turned out to be a salesman trying to sell me a vehicle warranty, Computer World reported.