Ah, they grow up so fast.

[Lukraak_Sisser]

Yesterday my wife and I are childless, and this morning I get a phone message from my child that they have a new phone number and can I app them please with a link.

If I had a burner phone I'd try to string them along. Oh well.
Reported it to the national fraud helpdesk, but does anyone know of a good website where I can give the whatsapp link to scambaiters?

 

[catsmate]

A colleague of mine go a similar scam; she said she couldn't do a transfer but would meet with cash.
She brought a few friends along.....

 

[Darat]

Sounds like this has started up again. A friend yesterday was recounting how her friend was nearly caught out this week, the friend's daughter has just travelled (down) to Australia and the friend got a "hi mum lost my phone using a kind stranger's phone", which understandably got her panicking, thankfully something twigged when they said they needed a bank transfer and it needed to go into a bank account now before the bank closed... not many banks are open at 4am in Australia...

 

[Darat]

There is meant to be a new variant using AI - they use someone's "Sorry can't answer my phone at the moment, leave a message and I'll get back to you" answerphone message to train an AI voice generator that sends the "Hi lost my phone" as a voice message to WhatsApp. I can see how that would get around most of the doubts about authenticity. But I'm dubious that is making the rounds as a real scam, it would require too much effort and cost and the WhatsApp texts are all a numbers game.

 

[Wudang]

That AI variant only makes sense to me if they’re targeting specific high wealth individuals. As in “What’s a measly £20,000?” wealthy.

 

[Norman Alexander]

"Just before I send the money, darling, what colour/make/type car do we have here?"

 

[Ryan O'Dine]

When the AIs learn how to do this on their own, we're in real trouble.

 

[bigred]

Or simply ask "OK.....what's our code word?" You don't even need to have such a word between family; the scammers won't know that and will probably try something weak like "I forgot" etc.

I'm almost disappointed I don't ever get these calls; it'd be fun to mess w/them and waste their time.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

When the AIs learn how to do this on their own, we're in real trouble.

I posted earlier somewhere on this forum of a scambaiter who had developed an AI application that stung scammers along all automatically for hours. I speculated that AI scammers may pit themselves against AI scambaiters and the volume of the resulting traffic may bring down the Internet.

And so it goes.

 

[bigred]

omg I hope not...then we'd have to do something radical like hang out with people in person or read a book or something!

 

[catsmate]

That AI variant only makes sense to me if they’re targeting specific high wealth individuals. As in “What’s a measly £20,000?” wealthy.

They are, mostly corporate accounts.

 

[catsmate]

I posted earlier somewhere on this forum of a scambaiter who had developed an AI application that stung scammers along all automatically for hours. I speculated that AI scammers may pit themselves against AI scambaiters and the volume of the resulting traffic may bring down the Internet.

And so it goes.

Bots already generate more traffic than humans.

 

[Ryan O'Dine]

I posted earlier somewhere on this forum of a scambaiter who had developed an AI application that stung scammers along all automatically for hours. I speculated that AI scammers may pit themselves against AI scambaiters and the volume of the resulting traffic may bring down the Internet.

And so it goes.

It'll either bring down the Internet, or bring about the singularity. All good.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Bots already generate more traffic than humans.

I think this really raises the problem to a higher level.

 

[rjh01]

Or simply ask "OK.....what's our code word?" You don't even need to have such a word between family; the scammers won't know that and will probably try something weak like "I forgot" etc.

I'm almost disappointed I don't ever get these calls; it'd be fun to mess w/them and waste their time.

Even simpler. Ask a question only you two know. Like when did we last meet? A real person will answer the question. A scammer will ignore it. Or contact a mutual friend. They may know it is a scam.

 

[Blue Mountain]

Even simpler. Ask a question only you two know. Like when did we last meet? A real person will answer the question. A scammer will ignore it. Or contact a mutual friend. They may know it is a scam.

For example, if you know the answer, ask, "What's your middle name?"

 

[bigred]

For example, if you know the answer, ask, "What's your middle name?"

That's far too easy for a scammer to know. That's why a code word is good...it could be anything and the odds of the scammer guessing it are almost zero.

 

[Jack by the hedge]

Scammers aren't wasting time researching you, they're just calling blind. They won't know your name never mind your kid's middle name.

I've had a few calls from my mobile phone company (yeah, sure) telling me they need to send me a new SIM urgently because something something. So I say this sounds like a scam call. To try to sound like they know my details, they ask me to confirm I have the phone number ending <4 digits>. Of course that is merely the number they randomly called and happened to get through to me, and it's all they know. Then they ask if I can confirm my email address and I suppose they'd go on and harvest as much as they could but that's when I ask them my name. And I wish them a good day and hope they can find a better job where they don't have to work for criminals and thieves.

 

[bigred]

Scammers aren't wasting time researching you, they're just calling blind. They won't know your name never mind your kid's middle name.

True for many I'm sure, but a dangerous and unnecessary assumption to make for all. To each their own...

 

[Jack by the hedge]

True for many I'm sure, but a dangerous and unnecessary assumption to make for all. To each their own...

Fair enough. I wouldn't suggest that if they simply know your name you should trust them, but rather if they don't even know your name then you don't need to waste any more time on thinking up devious questions to catch them out.

 

[bigred]

Or you could take the other approach and string them along with false info. There was a guy online years ago who called himself the "Ebola Monkey Man" and had a whole web site where he documented how well he did this with many scammers at the time...some of the stupid stuff he got them to believe or do because they thought they were going to make money off of him was great. I rarely get scam calls or emails these days, but I think the next time I do I'll try this.

 

[Darat]

There is meant to be a new variant using AI - they use someone's "Sorry can't answer my phone at the moment, leave a message and I'll get back to you" answerphone message to train an AI voice generator that sends the "Hi lost my phone" as a voice message to WhatsApp. I can see how that would get around most of the doubts about authenticity. But I'm dubious that is making the rounds as a real scam, it would require too much effort and cost and the WhatsApp texts are all a numbers game.

Might be too expensive for the regular bods but not for the nationals:

AI-cloned voice of 999 call handler used in Russian disinformation operation

www.independent.co.uk