Worried about that mail you got? SLO County woman shares tips for how check if it’s a scam
The authentic-looking text on my cellphone set my Spidey-sense wariness tingling.
I knew the message could be another fraudulent one from a scammer, albeit from a smarter, scarier-than-usual one.
Am I a skeptic? You betcha, Bubba.
Sound familiar? Sure, it does.
Yeah, we’re flooded with irritatingly frequent, money-grubbing, fake email and phone contacts each day, with some of the more infuriating calls coming from familiar numbers that have been cloned or “spoofed.” But more about those later.
Watch out for authentic-looking mail scams
Watch out! If you think that mail you just got really is from your bank or your investment company, then think again, look again and be wary.
Amazingly authentic-looking documents and envelopes have been arriving recently in people’s mailboxes, but they’re scams.
The topic of how extra savvy the scammers have become arises regularly at agency meetings and in panicked online postings.
During the North Coast Advisory Council’s February meeting, Chairman Brian Glusovich warned of the “increasingly sophisticated scams with physical letters arriving (supposedly) from Fidelity, Schwab” and other trusted institutions that are supposed to safeguard our funds.
That’s especially alarming, he said, because that means “we could be one step away from getting scam IRS letters.”
Eeek! Not a comforting thought during tax season, eh?
Reps for the U.S. tax agency and others have emphasized for years that they’d never send demands for payment via email, phone or text, but would always send them by mail.
Uh-oh.
What does law enforcement do about scams?
Supervisor Bruce Gibson said in his comments to NCAC that night that the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department takes scamming very seriously and regularly takes reports about scam attempts, successful or not.
The Sheriff’s Department encourages people to report scams by calling the separtment’s non-emergency number at 805-781-4550 (or, in a city, call your local police department).
Such incidents could also be reported to the separtment online at report.citizenserviceportal.com, where people can submit information about non-emergency, criminal or potentially criminal situations. Select the “suspicious circumstances” tab.
Occasionally, the separtment also posts information about particularly prevalent scams at www.slosheriff.org, as the agency did in December about a scam in which callers purported to be — you guessed it — from the Sheriff’s Department.
There’s usually very little that law enforcers and investigators can do when people have been snared into sending funds (but that doesn’t mean they won’t try and sometimes succeed!).
But the department does log in each incident, which helps them track how prevalent a particular scheme is.
At NCAC’s November meeting, the Sheriff’s Department sergeant reported that “scams are burgeoning now,” although he said he couldn’t quantify the number or the amount of money lost to scammers, in part because some people don’t report their losses because they’re embarrassed.
He said when the scams succeed, the losses are often high-ticket — one man had reported a loss Tuesday of $12,000.
Here’s what to do when you think you’re being scammed
If you’ve fallen for a scam, be aware you’re in good, smart company. Even the best of us can fall for a clever scammer, and those scummy folks are getting sneakier, nastier and slicker every day.
A particularly sad recent social-media post was about a smart, active, aware North Coast nonagenarian who’d been bilked out of more than $90,000. (Last I heard, forces had aligned to get all or some of the man’s money returned to him, but unfortunately, those results can be rare. In the meantime, he’ll only talk to law enforcers about the episode, and I certainly don’t blame him).
The bottom line? If you think you’ve been scammed, or even approached for a scam, before you do anything, be skeptical and do your own research.
For instance, carefully check the email address, or go online to check the phone number.
On their websites, AARP and the Federal Trade Commission both have tips on how to spot scams and what to do if you are a victim of one.
The text that set off alarm bells
All of that was on my mind when I got that troubling text in early March.
For some reason that day, I hesitated as my finger hovered over the delete command for the troubling text. Peculiar as it was to receive it, this one looked, dare I say it, authentic?
With the identifying specifics omitted, it read:
“Account status — Free msg: Your account XYYYYY requires attention. Please log into (website) or call (phone number). Text STOP to unsubscribe.”
I know better than to click on links in a text or email. No no no no.
With my suspicion level on high alert, I went first to my computer to check the phone number.
Surprise! This one was what it was alleged to be, and when I went online to my account, the phone number was also listed there.
So, I picked up my trusty, old-school landline and called.
After a real person answered, I confirmed all the requisite info and explained the situation. After the inevitable waits, the rep said he couldn’t find any problem with the account, said the credit-card company probably had indeed sent the email, but he just couldn’t figure out why.
He agreed I’d handled the situation correctly and safely.
The whole episode also had a really eerie aspect to it (cue the “Twilight” theme, please).
When the text arrived, I’d already been writing this column about scams.
I knew about the updated but still phony “Grandma, I’m in jail” or “I’m your boss, send me money” contacts, and that scammers already are using artificial intelligence to fake faces and mimic the voices of family members to further fool the innocent
But the prospect that the scammy scuzzballs are now using AI the way Google does — to learn what I’m researching or writing about?
OMG, my Spidey-sense wariness just leapt to a whole new level.
This story was originally published March 8, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
