Online Life Lecture
The Challenge of Preventing Telephone Scams——Lectured by Professor Wang Xiaoming
Tang Jianhua's Digest
In a person's life, there is a chance to be deceived. The essence of deception is to gain the trust of the victim and seek improper benefits by deception.The tactics of deception are changing with each passing day. Deception over the phone is the most common type of fraud. Since the spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in the United States, related fraudulent calls have also increased. Some people pretend to be the new crown pneumonia hotline to obtain the personal data of the victim, and some Under the pretext of bank closures near the spread of the new crown pneumonia, people are required to provide credit cards and personal information; these phone scammers may use real people's phone calls, robot calls, or SMS messaging with the intent to steal money or personal information.Can we avoid becoming victims of phone scams? On May 2020, 5, the Jiaosheng Community Center held a free online life lecture on the challenge of preventing telephone fraud. Dr. Wang Xiaoming, professor of criminal justice at the University of Houston’s downtown campus, from the perspective of academic research, through life Examples to help us understand the face of phone fraud, thereby reducing the probability of being deceived.
★The origin of fraud
Since the history of mankind, scams have existed. The Bible ․In Chapters 5 to 6 of Genesis, it is described that Jacob successfully deceived his brother Esau’s eldest son and his father’s blessings by deception. However, the invention of the telephone gave scammers new tools. Scams across space, and the advent of the Internet has made it easier for fraudsters to search for and target victims.Therefore, telephone fraud has become the most common fraud crime in the United States, and the people lose considerable money every year due to this.According to a Harris poll, Americans lost US$2013 billion due to phone fraud in 86. Market Watch showed that the loss increased to US$2017 billion in 95, with an average loss of US$430 per victim. The Security Magazine reported The loss in 2018 was as high as $105 billion.These data show that phone fraud is on the rise in the United States. Even though the criminal tactics are often the same, many people have become victims of phone fraud due to insufficient social knowledge and lack of vigilance.
★Liar artist
The design of a scam is usually to grasp the weakness of human nature and use clever or serial methods to scam money. A successful scam has two important elements. The first is to win the trust of the victim, so the English word "Con Artist" is used. To describe a liar.In other words, scammers are like artists. They will cheat with a very charming and persuasive appearance. If the scam involves banking or investment, the scammer will wear professional clothing. If it involves home repair scams, he may show up in shabby work clothes. A veteran liar can even convince you that he is indeed an old friend you haven't seen for many years.
The second element is to pretend to be a member of the community, because it is "one's own person" that often makes victims lose their vigilance. Christians often pretend to be staff of embassies and consulates abroad, using Chinese familiar to Chinese, falsely claiming that the victim has emergency packages or documents that must be picked up at the embassy abroad, or claiming that someone has falsely used the victim’s identity to commit crimes, making the person afraid And deceived, fraud gangs are more likely to use technical means to display the caller ID as the number of the embassy or consulate abroad in order to defraud the party concerned.
★ Urging to make up your mind
There are many forms of phone fraud, but their deception routines often include the following methods:
1 Telephone scammers usually don't give their victims time to think, and use tricks or threats to make the person concerned immediately decide (take the bait).
2 When victims ask for more information, they also seem willing to comply.They provide victims-oriented websites that have been set up, and provide false satisfied customers within the organization to investigate customer satisfaction, and you can lure you into the game step by step.
3 Get rich quick routine: inform you that this offer has been specially selected, you have won one of the prizes of value, you have won the lottery in a foreign country, if you buy our products, you will get a free bonus, you must make up your mind now...
4 Pretending to be an official office routine: inform your social security number has been used, your name is involved in some fraudulent activities, or you are involved in tax evasion, this call is the final official notification from the IRS (or other official offices), otherwise you will be accused…
★Identify phone content
1 Take your time and don't be forced to make a decision right away.Legitimate companies will give you time to think about their quotations and obtain written information about the quotations before you request to submit them.
2 The real prize does not need to be paid, and the caller may say that you have been "selected" the grand prize or won the lottery; however, if you have to pay or pay with a prepaid card to get the prize, it is definitely not a prize.
3 The real law enforcement agency will not threaten you over the phone. When scammers pretend to be law enforcement agencies or federal agencies, they may say that if you do not pay taxes or other debts immediately, you will be arrested, fined or deported. The purpose is Intimidate you to take the bait.
★Protect consumers
The Federal Trade Administration is the agency responsible for protecting consumers from telephone fraud in the United States.The Federal Trade Agency was established in 1914 under the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1915.Protect consumers through the following three ways.
- Process
To protect consumers through legislative projects, the most representative one is the "Do Not Disturb Implementation Act". In order to implement the "Telephone Consumer Protection Act" of 1991, the US Congress passed the "Do Not Disturb Implementation Act" (US Code) in 2003. Article 15, Section 6101), authorizes the FTC to open a "National Do Not Disturb Register", and people can go to the website https://telemarketing.donotcall.gov to register a home phone or mobile phone for free.However, the do not disturb register can only prevent the harassment of telemarketing, and it is difficult to prevent phone fraud groups from using robot calls to deceive.According to Consumer Reports, in April 2018, about 4 billion robot calls were made to American households, an increase of nearly 34 billion over the same period in 2017.Robot call is to use computer technology to automatically generate any phone number. If the fraud group has obtained your personal information or the phone number of relatives and friends through hackers, it can even show the phone numbers of your friends on your caller ID.
2. Education
In view of the fact that many consumers have become victims of telephone fraud due to lack of social knowledge and lack of alertness, FTC provides consumers with online information services.Consumers can also print the information as a PDF for reference.
3. Enforcement
The FTC is an administrative agency. After receiving complaints from the public, it must be handled in accordance with the procedures. It is often time-consuming. Even if you enter the administrative court and win the lawsuit, the fines are difficult to deter fraudulent groups. Therefore, the FTC established the "Criminal Liaison Office" in 2003. "Cooperate with interested law enforcement agencies to jointly investigate specific types of consumer fraud cases. So far, we have successfully prosecuted thousands of fraudsters.
According to a report in the New York Times, on July 2018, 7, the Houston Court ruled that 20 people who lived in 21 states (Illinois, Arizona, Florida, California, Alabama, Indiana, New Jersey and Texas) had phone calls The scammer went to jail for up to 8 years.In addition, in Ahmedabad, India, 20 people were charged with wire fraud, money laundering and other conspiracy charges for involving 32 telephone fraud call centers.
The scam has been active in the United States from 2012 to 2016, with more than 15,000 victims and a total of millions of dollars lost. The scammers targeted the most vulnerable Americans, including immigrants and the elderly.For example, an 85-year-old woman in San Diego received a call from claiming to be an IRS operator, accusing her of tax evasion and threatening to arrest her, so the old lady paid $12,300 to the scammer; there was also a scammer who lived in Chicago. The man received a call from the state police and immigration officer, accusing him of being an illegal immigrant, threatening to arrest him and deporting him, so he was frightened and paid $5,070 to the scammer.
The aforementioned successful prosecution cases are only the tip of the iceberg of phone fraud, and many fraudsters still have to be brought to justice.For example, according to the report of the South American News in 2018, on the morning of July 7, a middle-aged woman with a doctorate who lives in Fubian County received a call from the Chinese Consulate General, and an urgent letter was sent to her. It was in a money laundering case that two credit cards were found in her name and she was asked to cooperate with the investigation, so she provided her passport number, bank account, credit card number and other information.Unexpectedly, after the scam group successfully obtained the woman's personal assets, they threatened to arrest her and seize her property in a series of ways. After being nervous and afraid, she remitted the money to the scammer's overseas account.
★Conclusions and reminders
The victims of phone fraud are not limited to traffickers, pawns, old and weak women and children, but all walks of life in society, regardless of race, gender, age, income, or education background, everyone is likely to be a victim of phone fraud.Telephone fraud is no longer a small personal problem, but a big issue that the whole people should pay attention to together.Everyone must be vigilant and pay attention to the following:
1 Don't succumb to the pressure of the other party asking you to take immediate action.
2 If the caller asks "Can you hear me?" Do not reply "Yes".The scammer will record your "yes" to escape the amulet in case of arrest in the future.
3 Do not provide your credit card number, bank account information or other personal information to the caller.
4 If the caller tells you to make a wire transfer or use a prepaid debit card to pay, please do not send money.
5 Please note that telephone fraud groups are taking advantage of COVID-19 to sell counterfeit test kits or false claims to "help" you quickly obtain economic revitalization checks.
6 Do not provide your personal information on the phone.
7 Even if the caller ID is an official agency or a phone number of relatives and friends, do not call back. Instead, dial another number. If you don’t know the official agency number, you can check on the official website before dialing.