A Wiser Retirement®

325. What Are The Biggest Financial Scams Right Now?

• Wiser Wealth Management • Episode 325

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If someone called you today claiming your bank account was hacked, would you know exactly how to respond? In this episode of A Wiser Retirement® Podcast, we dive into the latest financial scams, how they work, and most importantly, how to protect yourself and your loved ones before real damage is done.

Related Podcast Episodes: 

95. ESG: Scam or Saving the World?

Related Financial Education Video:

Social Security Workshop Scams

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Cold Open: Bank Hack Hook

SPEAKER_02

If someone called you today saying your bank account was hacked, would you know what to do in the first 60 seconds? Stay tuned to learn more about the latest scams and how to avoid them.

SPEAKER_01

Welcome to a wiser retirement podcast, where we cut through the noise and bring you real, honest conversations about investing retirement and building lasting wealth. No sales pitches, no gimmicks, just everything your financial advisor won't tell you.

SPEAKER_02

Hey, I'm Casey Smith. I'm here with Michaela Dowdy. Superstar financial advisor. Your calendar's full.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it's really booked right now. Yeah. It's it's crazy.

SPEAKER_02

It's booked as mine. I think you're actually more popular than me because my stuff has a lot of like, you know, run wiser stuff on it. You just have a lot of people.

SPEAKER_04

We do have a lot of runwiser, but that's that's the intention. That's the intention.

SPEAKER_02

So Superstar Michaela here uh is and I are going to talk about some of the biggest financial scams out there. And let me tell you, this is this is a hard one to prep for because I've I've caught a few myself um here.

SPEAKER_04

Definitely.

The $12B Problem And Who Gets Hit

SPEAKER_02

Uh well, one one at the firm, but just with just with me personally, mostly people trying to get my social security number in devious ways. We'll talk about that later. So, you know, right now, uh Americans have reported over 12 billion loss to fraud just in 2024. Think about that. 12 billion dollars lost in fraud in 2024. Investment scams um are responsible for 5 billion of that total, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Uh, adults 60 and older filed 147,000 complaints in 2024 and lost 4.88 billion, a sharp jump versus 2023 in order in uh from uh Internet Crime Complaint Center. Uh in 2022, the FBI has offered thousands of decryption keys to victims of ransomware, avoiding over$800 million uh in payments. Um, I could keep going on and on and on.

SPEAKER_04

Well, I think the most interesting one too is uh like this, you know, podcast overall, we are kind of more focusing a little bit towards the older adults here. But something I found when I was really looking behind some of these, you know, sources that we have here was that per the Federal Trade Commission, for all fraud that goes beyond just internet specific crime, um, really for younger adults, there's actually between ages 20 to 29, they actually have a higher rate of being and falling, you know, to these different scams and fraud. Um, even than older adults are 70 and older. So 40% or 44% of 20 to 29 year olds or 40% of the rates that reminds me come in.

Inside The Scammer’s Playbook

SPEAKER_02

Do you remember that time uh we had a a marketing assistant?

SPEAKER_04

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

And she was brand new within like the first couple of weeks. Well, these scammers, they know if you're a new employee somehow.

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

And they caught contacted her with an email that looked like mine, but was not. It was definitely not my email. I said, and said, Hey, while you're out, how did they know she was out? I have no idea. No, I they said I think it was just by chance. Yes, but while you're out when she's literally out on an office errand. She was out on an office errand and they convinced her that she needed to that I I was convincing her, you know, not really me, uh, that she needed to pick up Amazon cards.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And she bought the most that you could buy at uh Kroger. And then she had called in to Hadley at the time and said, Hey, I want to be late coming back because Casey's having me go get gift cards. And Hadley's like, you need to call me right now. Casey would never ask you to go get gift cards. She's like, She's like, So what happened exactly? She's like, Well, I bought the gift cards, but I didn't have any company money, so I used my own credit card or her own debit card, actually. And I uh scratched off the backs and I gave the person on the email the codes because she thought it was me.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02

She came back, she was 600 bucks. She was scammed out of 600 bucks. And she's like, she's crying. I did the right thing, don't worry. I wrote her a check for$600. And I said, look, here's$600. That's a life lesson. Um, if you clicked on the email to see what the email was from, it started off with my name, but then it was like a ton of letters, and it was not from Casey at wiserinvestor.com, which is my legit email.

SPEAKER_04

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02

Uh, and it has super security on it. So I'm really hard, I think, to get into my email. All of ours, actually. Yeah, I can't even get in my own email sometimes. But but yeah, that's just I you said young people, and that that's that's a story I just remembered that yes, she she was she was very young. Um, I I think there's some uh we're we're gonna go through several scams that are out there right now, but there's some psychology that you'll find in common. Why don't we go ahead and tell our listeners like what those are so they can listen for it?

SPEAKER_04

Yes. So there's always this emphasis on urgency. So it's you need to be doing this immediately. And there's also this more of even secrecy and almost trying to isolate you from those around you of just saying, This is between you and me, please don't tell other people. Or maybe it's just, hey, let's go to this private messaging platform so we can communicate more securely, you know, different things like that. And so it really is something there's this emphasis on urgency of we need to have this happen now, or this, this, and this are going to happen to you. You know, there's just a lot of, you know, it's really trying to appeal to your emotion of like, oh, I've got to get this done or something horrible is going to happen. And so it's really understanding that psychology of it of okay, well, if this is this amount of urgency and they're really trying to isolate me in this, then this is right. This should be raising alarms and red flags.

Investment Frauds And Fake Guarantees

SPEAKER_02

Yes. Urgency, secrecy, isolation. Think about that as we go through these. So let's start with uh scam number one investment in too good to be true returns.

SPEAKER_04

Yes. So this is actually the highest dollar of losses for older adults. So this is primarily where those older adults are really falling prey to these scams. And so 1.83 billion was lost to investment fraud in 2024. So we were talking about, you know, 5 billion of that total um was, you know, investment scams last year, and 1.83 billion was from older adults. So those 60 and older. So it's a definitely a number one loss category overall for internet crime, but definitely is falling prey for those older adults as well. And the highest median individual losses is also$9,000, which is a large amount of money to be losing to a scammer. So definitely, you know, wanting to be mindful of what these scams are, because of course, this being the median, you know, there are people that lost a lot more. There's also some people that lost less. But we want to make sure that, you know, you're not falling prey to that. And they work in a few different ways. Um, but mainly the big thing is they're trying to guarantee those returns. And really, you know, saying you have exclusive availability to the this IPO, or um, you can get risk-free income, or you know, you can have guarantee those guaranteed returns, or even like your account needs to be moved for security. So saying, hey, you've already been in a breach and we need to move your account. Yeah. You know, those kinds of things. So it's really trying to get access to your investment accounts so that then you can get those two good to be true returns.

SPEAKER_02

A Ponzi scheme is a is a uh a scam, obviously. But that works the same way. They they they get they promise you these really high rate of returns. Maybe they hit a few and they you get some money back, and then uh at some point the game's up because they don't have enough money coming in to cover the money that has to go back out.

SPEAKER_04

Definitely. What a story that I found that just was so interesting to me, because it's actually a CEO of one of the AI companies out there. Um, his name's James Jason, and this was reported on Yahoo Finance. Um, and he just explains a time where he was actually scammed. And um, it was actually from a direct message on Instagram, is how he found this guy who is reaching out to him as a forex trader. And so from there, he, you know, kind of got swindled into okay, yeah, I'll let you trade some of my money for me. Ended up, he puts his money in. It's gaining incredible returns, so it says online when he logs in. And then he goes to withdraw the money a few months later, the guy's ghosted. So completely no response, um, just crickets on the other line. And it ends up being that he lost a very significant amount of money. He doesn't disclose exactly what that is. Yeah, but he does say that he actually had to cut back on his living in order um to really recover from it. So, and he wasn't able to recover any of the losses. So there are times where you do just have to be really mindful. Um, but it's really understanding that I mean, this can come even just from, you know, those direct messages and just it seems like they're a really smooth talker and they can really make it seem like you're getting in this amazing investment, but then you end up falling prey to a scam and it can look like it's the best the best opportunity and it ends up not being.

SPEAKER_02

That's the whole thing with investing. Is there's really no secret sauce, but but a lot of people, especially super active traders, everyone everyone thinks that that that there's something that they're missing. If they were in the right club, they can make all this money.

SPEAKER_04

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

And it doesn't really work that way. And we get a whole podcast on how it actually works, but um that's that's what people think is oh, if I can get into on this fund, if I can get, if I can do this thing, and really if they just stayed in the SP 500, diversified around that, uh, that's typically the highest rate of return. It's just that there's time and people with who have higher earnings power therefore have more money out there, which in turn generates more dollars, right? 10% rate of return on$100 is very different than$100 million.

SPEAKER_04

Exactly. Exactly. You both got 10%. But it's just the returns.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, the returns get bigger. And obviously, business owners that run successful businesses eventually liquidate, and that creates a lot of wealth um as well. But yeah, stay, stay away from anyone who's who is leading an investment or leading a conversation with I can guarantee or I can get you these high rated returns. Uh it's really super exclusive, things, things of that nature.

SPEAKER_04

Definitely. And a few other red flags um that we noted here as well is of course, like you're saying, the guaranteed anything, but also being moved to private messaging. And we'll talk through this a little bit more here later. Um, but definitely, you know, if they're talking through, well, let's get on an encrypted platform, those kinds of things, or also pressure to add money to recover your losses is another big thing. Um, and then fake dashboards again, like showing gains that you can't withdraw. Um, so just some things to be understanding of. And then also a big way to avoid this and you know what to do instead is to verify the person or the firm that you're communicating with through databases on the SEC website or even Fedor's website. Um, and or you can even call the known number that they have and you know, see it, or if they have one, they can even provide for you. And so it's really understanding, you know, are they, you know, being cleared through the right institutions and then never send money to anyone that you need to unlock profits for either, um, is another, you know, thing to just be aware of as well.

SPEAKER_02

So broker check, you can go to brokercheck.com run by the FENRU and SEC. Uh if they're an SEC registered firm, they'll they'll switch you over to the SEC site automatically. Uh, but even people who are who are licensed advisors, you'd be careful there too. Yeah. Uh we have uh two near our office that have uh very bad records.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Uh yeah, I see clients walking in those doors every single week thinking, did they not check this guy's record? Like you ought to be in jail. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_04

Well, I think a lot of people just aren't aware of those platforms being out there, you know? Um, and so it's definitely something the more you know about that, then the better you can be.

SPEAKER_02

So go to brokercheck.com if you're if you have questions. Uh, typically more aggressive advisors, advisors that are selling products that are more aggressive or trained to be more aggressive are gonna have uh black marks in their record just because of that. Definitely. Uh, you ready to go to number two? Yes, imposter scams. Government, bank, and tech support.

SPEAKER_04

I know.

Verifying Advisors And BrokerCheck

SPEAKER_02

Uh, we have a client that uh I have to uh pay extra attention to. She's uh doesn't have any family, she lives in assisted living. And we went through a period with her uh with her phone, and she would get these alerts on her phone that said, You have a virus on your phone. And she would be pay the$499 to get the virus off of her phone, but there was no virus on her iPhone.

SPEAKER_04

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Right? So so eventually we had to find ways to um remove her ability to pay for things online, and that kind of solved it. But then she still would call in going, I have all these viruses on my phone, I need you to come get them off right away. These viruses are just all over my phone, and she would get all worked up and really agitated about it. I drive out there and and try to clean her phone up as best I could. But yeah, the problem is she goes out there on the web trying to buy things, and those are probably scams too. I don't know. I think she's trying to buy things that don't ever actually show up at her house.

SPEAKER_04

Yes, and that's a big one, too. Exactly. Yes.

SPEAKER_02

So anyway, that that's kind of a story of of um of how that works. I think you have to pay really attention to older people who, especially people who had computers or they would get viruses and they had a virus, Norton antivirus, and say, You have a virus, and they go, Oh no, and then I'm gonna scrub my virus, and that makes sense to them. Yeah, but the reality is your iPhone is probably not getting a virus.

Imposter Scams: Tech, Bank, Government

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, most of the time, no. Yeah, um, unless you've just downloaded something crazy. Yeah, right. But you have to work really hard. Apple does a really good job with their virus protection most of the time. So um, but the big thing is with this one is that it is the most reported category, and it does have huge losses associated with it because it's the most reported. Um, so 2.95 billion was lost in 2024 to this category. Um, and a lot of this comes from, you know, phishing or what they call spoofing as well. So it's, you know, trying to fake as someone else, as well as, you know, tech support there too, and then government impersonation as well. So, you know, making sure that, you know, you're taking care of yourself on that front. Um, and I found a very similar story to what you were explaining um earlier, and that it there's this woman who's 90 years old, was very well versed, used her phone all the time, had social media, all the things for her family. And she as well was, you know, was convinced that her phone had a virus on it or needed assistance in some way from a tech support company. Um, and she ended up losing$20,000 because they got access to her device and were able to get into her bank account. Um, and so just definitely something to be mindful of. Um, because this really can come from a lot of places, whether it's they're pretending to be IRS, social security, Medicare, those are really common. Your bank's fraud department, even, um, or even, you know, Microsoft, Apple, or like the Best Buy Geek Squad saying that you have, you know, to be mindful of this and that they're trying to create panic because your account's been compromised. And so we're really trying to, you know, combat that um and make sure that you're aware of those red flags because it really is something that is very, as we can see, um, very big issue.

SPEAKER_02

What happened to me last week is I had, I think someone actually tried to apply for American Express card using my information, but they didn't have my social. So they sent me an email that looked a lot like American Express and said your application number is, and it was only four digits. It was like 8695. And I thought that was strange. That's a very low allocate uh application number for you think the number of application American probably gets, right? Uh and then, but I called the number because I I didn't apply for American Express card, and but I have I do a lot of business with American Express. So I called the number and the lady answered. She was it was an Asian voice who's very, very happy to hear from me. And I was like, American Express is never this happy to hear from me. That's my that was my first clue. And then I didn't hear any beeps in the background, like they always have beeps in the background because they're recording or whatever. And I thought that was strange. And I said, Hey, um, there's um there's an application out for a card, evidently, but I didn't I didn't apply for it. And you guys sent me an email and you called and left me a message saying that someone's applied, give us a call so we can complete your application. Uh or or you have applied, give us a call so we can complete your application. So I called that number and she was insistent on getting my social security number so she could look me up. I'm like, wait a minute, you called me. Like you you called me. Yeah, and I'm calling you back and you have my number on my phone number on file. I've never had to give my social security number for any reason to call American Express. American Express travel, fragile in charge, whatever, right? So I said, I'm not comfortable giving my social security number. Like, I'm not giving my social security number out. She's like, Oh, we're you know, uh, we this is how we can find the application. I was like, absolutely not. So I just hung up on her. So then I was like, I'm just gonna wait for the real American Express to call me. So they called me and said, Hey, uh, there's an application out. We don't need any more information for the application. I said, Yes, uh, I did not file for an application. They're like, oh, okay, we're gonna close this application out. And then they're like, we're reading me this report on I should contact the three credit bureaus, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, okay, well, this is definitely sounds like American Express at this point.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So you just have to be very, very careful about what about what you do. Um, a long time ago, we had a client that called me immediately and said, Hey, there's a problem. Uh, I said, What's the problem? She says, Well, someone called me and said, Hey, I'm sorry, we were just talking a little while ago and I didn't get your social security number to complete your application. Can you give that to me real quick? And she goes, I I was kind of flustered because I said I couldn't remember who I was talking to a little while ago. And so I just gave him my social security number. Oh, I was like, I was like, oh no. And so we signed her up for Life Lock pretty quickly. Um, you know, Life Lock, I don't know. I you know the whole story behind LifeLock is the CEO put his social security number on all the billboards. And you didn't you remember this? No, wait, yeah. So this is I don't know, this was maybe 10 years ago or so when they came out, but they put he put all his social security numbers up on his personal social security numbers, all the bullet bulletin boards, and said, I'm so confident that you want get your identity stolen, I'm putting, I'm giving you my personal social security number. Well, he was he was uh identity stolen is like seven times. He had applications filed a social security number like 29 times. So so even that system, he had to take it down. Even that system didn't work.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. I mean, at that point, you know, she basically decided to get a new social security number. I feel like social security is like, gosh, you really screwed up here.

SPEAKER_02

Um, so yeah, and and even like if uh like even the department of defense could be hacked, you know, we're probably gonna have issues at some point, but don't be stupid. No, and and and that's part of the problem with all these scams, is people are reluctant to go and get help immediately, like the lady who called me. No, she she swallowed her pride and she was like, Hey, I think I screwed this up, I need your help. What do I do? Uh, where a lot of people are like, Oh, because they don't want to tell anybody because then they feel they feel foolish.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And so that makes it worse, right? It starts getting worse because of that. But um, yeah, it's just you have to be careful. Like the IRS doesn't call people, right? That's that's another one. They they like to call you up and say you owe money to the IRS and you gotta pay them.

SPEAKER_04

You gotta pay them through you're gonna need to go to jail. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Pay through Zelly or meet them in the street corner and pay him in cash or something. And it's like that's not how the IRS works. They're they're gonna send you letters. They're not maybe an email. I don't know. I don't know if they communicate through email, but I know they communicate through letters.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, they definitely communicate through letters. Letters. I don't know. Yeah. That's a good one. I don't know. But definitely something to be aware of because these are definitely even more common. Um, and so really the big thing to do though, if you do catch yourself in one of these situations, is really just to hang up and then, like you were saying, call the institution um that you know that was associated with and just verify everything's okay, or even, you know, like we're saying too, freeze your accounts um just to make sure that those are, you know, set to go and that no money's gonna be taken out or anything like that. Before we jump back into the episode, do you know if you are ready to take off and launch into retirement? Get your pre-retirement checklist, a free guide from Wiser Wealth Management, from cash flow to social security. We've got your account down covered. Go to wiserinvestor.com slash guides to download your free guide today. Now let's get back to the episode.

SPEAKER_02

Number three, this one's sad. Romance and relationship scams.

SPEAKER_04

No, this one is really sad because it's just more emotionally devastating than anything else. And I think um this is something too that I was looking at, you know, looking for another, you know, personal story of this happening to someone. There's this sweet woman, Rita, um, and she lives in Montana, and she lost about$90,000 um over the course of several months to this person who is acting as a celebrity um and had started private messaging her on social media. Moved her over to like an encrypted platform saying that their team, like their social media team, monitors all of their, you know, social media accounts and that they wanted to talk more privately to her. And so they moved over to the bla that platform. Both of them were going through a divorce at the time. So like she was, he was as well, apparently. Um, and so then he started asking her for money and she started sending it to him via Bitcoin. That was the big way um that he wanted to receive that or they wanted to receive it. Um, and it was just really heartbreaking to me because how it really it what she said, she goes, Yes, I lost$90,000, which is a lot of money. But at the end of the day, the biggest part was that I lost my heart and I lost my soul, which is a really a big part of me. And it took a really long time to, you know, feel confident with myself again after that. Um, because she's like she still has the text messages and she's like, I re-re-read these, you know, and realize just how I was just in such a bad spot emotionally. I was really looking forward to these text messages every day, and someone took advantage of me for that.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

And so it's just really heartbreaking for that, for someone to really, you know, or these companies, I'm not, I'm sure it's not just one person on the other line, but you know, just these places to be really taken. Which is strange.

SPEAKER_02

You have to assume they probably talked on the phone and you know, right?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, even things like it would just be chat.

SPEAKER_02

That'd be weird.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, no, I would agree.

Sponsor: Pre‑Retirement Checklist

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. We had a scenario uh recently in the office. Uh I did not meet with them. I think Andrew did actually, but it was related to uh cryptocurrency scam. But it was a it was a guy who who met a pretty girl and thought there was feelings there, and then she they formed a relationship and she committed she convinced him to start putting money into this crypto investment, and the whole thing was a scam. Like she was never never really into him. It was just about the money for whoever she's working for, or maybe she's working for herself. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04

That's awful.

SPEAKER_02

Poor guy, you know, he thinks like, hey, you know, someone actually cares about me, and then oh no.

SPEAKER_04

No, no, that was just a cash grab.

SPEAKER_02

No, that yeah, yeah, that's really sad.

Romance Scams And Crypto Traps

SPEAKER_04

No, definitely. And I think the big red flags here to realize if you ever find yourself in one of these situations is you know, looking at will they video chat with you? You know, that's or is there always an excuse for why they won't? Um, or you know, if they're asking for secrecy or, you know, or if they're even asking for money for like emergencies and that kind of thing, and you've only known each other a few months, yeah, you know, um, or even if they're trying to move you off the original platform that you met on, then that's another, you know, red flag to be raised as well. Um, so definitely just some opportunities to look at there. Um, but really the big thing is letting your friends into this or letting a trusted advisor into a situation like this, you know, and even if it's just like, hey, I've met this person and you know, this is what's going on, you know, like most people do. You start talking about those that are important to you, but it's really letting them into even when there is money starting to be asked for, like, hey, do you think this is like, you know, something that I should be doing? Or do you think this is something that seems legitimate? Yeah, you know, I just want another set of eyes on this before, you know, I start doing that.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I everyone just everyone wants to feel love. That's like human human nature, right? So this is this this one uh this one would hurt would hurt worse for for people. So you do have to be vigil vigilant for sure.

SPEAKER_04

Definitely.

SPEAKER_02

Definitely uh next one, this is it falls into more of the uh urgency uh look lookout uh scam number four is what we're calling it. Family emergency grandparent scams, uh now with AI, but this is really scary. I have not witnessed this, but I uh how you defend against it could be very uh you'd have to be really on top of things.

SPEAKER_04

You would, you would, and you'd have to have proactive measures put in place.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, there's one good proactive measure measure that a family uh, you know, the next holiday that comes up, the family should consider about I don't want to steal it from you.

SPEAKER_04

No, you're good, you're good. So um the big thing now is AI voice cloning, which I'm sure all of us at this point have, you know, seen AI videos, AI photos, all things AI on social media. And it's really easy now to even have voices, you know, shifted as well. And so the big thing, since there is social media out there, our voices are out there, like mine and Casey's are out there right now on a podcast.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_04

It's very easy to then take this information and say, I want them to be saying this, you know, urgent emergency or, you know, and act in lieu of, you know, a family member and really, you know, cause older adults or even, you know, just people that love you and doesn't necessarily have to be older adults, but this is something we're seeing more common. That's their target demographic that they're going after to exploit, you know, your protective instincts here, which is really, you know, heartbreaking again. And I found a story from ABC News 7 in LA, who is talking to this man, Anthony, and he received a phone call from his son saying, Hey dad, I've been in a car accident and I have hit a pregnant woman. They're rushing her to the hospital. That's all like all it was is I'm letting you know this is what's happened, this is what's going on with my day. And dad's like, okay, you know, just encouraging whatever it may be, whatever needs to happen in that moment as a dad. And they hang up. A few minutes later go by, he gets a phone call from an attorney. The attorney saying, Hey, we are your son's being arrested. His bail is$9,200. If you don't pay the bail, then he's gonna be in jail for 45 days.

SPEAKER_03

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04

So then he goes to the bank, withdraws the 9,200, tells the bank he's taking it out for solar panels because he doesn't want them to know. Which I thought was a fascinating choice. Um not trusting the bank. Yes, yeah, so then pulls out the 9200, takes it, then calls them back and is like, what do we need to do with this money? Now he's also let his daughter into this as well. So he's called his daughter at some point during this. They're both at the point where okay, how do we get this money?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Um, they call an Uber. The company does. So they're on the phone, they're like, Hey, we're gonna send you an Uber, and you're just gonna give it to the Uber driver and they'll bring it to us.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, which Uber's not supposed to do that, by the way.

SPEAKER_04

No, and so then Uber shows up, like I think via the app, even like they confirm the license plate, they confirm the driver, everything checks out, so they hand the envelope over.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Then like cold hard cash, I guess. Yes, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_04

Then they drive away, they get another phone call sometime later saying the pregnant woman has passed away in the hospital. So now his bail has gone up to$25,000 from the$9,200. So they still owe like$1,508 or something like that. So then they go to the bank again, go get the funds, and then come back, do the same process all over again, get Uber, da-da-da, they take it. And then finally comes to a point where the daughter's like, hmm. And they've tried to call the son at this point at different points. Of course, it's going to voicemail, which then they're like, okay, that checks out because he's in jail, you know. Oh yeah. Like this all makes sense. And um, so then they, you know, finally the daughter's like looking up, you know, what's going on, that kind of thing, and realizes and looks at her dad and goes, I think we might have just been scammed. And they realize they had. Um, but it was just this story, this story took me aback because it really shows the commitment um of these scammers and how elaborate they'll go.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely. This is also a lesson to to young people. If your mama or your daddy calls you, answer the damn phone.

SPEAKER_04

There you go. Very true.

SPEAKER_02

Sometimes my kids don't answer and be like, I pay for your cell phone. Like, why are you not answering the phone?

SPEAKER_04

Really? I pay to have access.

AI Voice Cloning And Family “Bail” Cons

SPEAKER_02

That's crazy. No. Well, yeah, and so they probably turn that over to authorities. And I feel like authorities are bombarded with these things. They do nothing. Uh, in my in a few cases that I dealt with with clients in situations not that elaborate, but yeah. Situations um we've called authorities and they they say, okay, thank you for this information, and nothing will ever happen again, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_04

Because they're so hard to track down, and that's the big thing. Even I was reading too, there was one that was caught in 2023 on one of the larger, you know, scammers, and they caught the company, or I don't even know if you can call the company. Yeah, but they caught all of them, you know, dismantled it. And then the FBI really was of this, okay, it's gonna be, you know, so much less traffic now. Right. Because we've caught this big conglomerate of it all. And then ended up being, nope, just as much. It really didn't make a dent. And so it's just one of those where they're it's constantly evolving so quickly, too.

SPEAKER_02

Umfortunately, the the penalty is not death by firing squad. If they made it death by firing squad, maybe less people will be doing this.

SPEAKER_04

Maybe, maybe. Uh but it's really is just being aware overall of, you know, that when you're getting those phone calls of I'm in this bad situation, da-da-da, confirm it with other family members. You know, maybe saying, Hey, even if it's your grandchild saying I'm in jail, do not call mom and dad. Do not let them know.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_04

Please just bail me out.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Okay. Well, if you're not calling mom and dad, call brother or sister, they're gonna know. Especially in today's day and age, um, you know, we have a lot of software now where people are sharing their locations with their loved ones.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, Find My Friends, yeah, uh, Life 360.

SPEAKER_04

Exactly. So it's something that, you know, someone in the family likely has their location at this point if they're a younger adult. Right. Or if they don't, then it's a friend that's going to have it. Like someone's going to have their location. And then that can also help you verify if this is true. Are they actually sitting at the jail right now? You know, is their phone at the courthouse? Or is it actually, you know, okay, no, they're over here at Wendy's, you know, like they're fine. So it's, you know, looking at that as well. Um, so really pausing to verify with a family member, or, and I think this is where you were going, Casey, setting up a family safe word. And this is huge, is understanding, okay, well, if you find yourself in this situation, well, then what's our safe word? What's the word that we're saying? You know, is it gonna be purple, apple, you know, something, whatever? Yeah. Um, you know, what's specific to us that makes sense? Um, and you know, probably making it something very obscure as well. So not something that can be easily guessed, I guess.

SPEAKER_02

Not something not found in your social media media, exactly. Your pet name or whatever.

SPEAKER_04

Mm-hmm. So, you know, keeping that, you know, something that's harder to figure out, but really, you know, setting that up as well. And something I kind of thought through this too is as we're getting more common with AI and there's a lot of, you know, even like financial institutions where we want verbal confirmation and all this other thing stuff, I could even see that, you know, financial institutions have to go to if we call you, we need you to be able to repeat this code back to us.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04

You know, and we're gonna have it on file, and you have to have it, and you know, or that you have to repeat this word to us, you know, or something like that so that we can verify it to you on the other line. So I could see this happening even on a business level as well.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that makes sense. Uh, let's go to number five online shopping, delivery, and charity scams. Uh seasonal, but pretty consistent.

SPEAKER_04

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

And I I always wonder about those people calling me up to give money to the police. I'm like, are you really the police? You know, and the firemen. Are you really the firemen? Probably not. Uh yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_04

No, I would I would say probably no on that one. Um, but definitely, you know, being aware of, you know, common around the holidays, like we're saying, or even disasters, so natural disasters, or even like election cycles, these are really common. Um, and I think the one that probably a lot of us are most aware of currently is the fake shipping alerts, or even the fake toll saying you're behind on a toll.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, everybody in Atlanta knows that one.

SPEAKER_04

Yes. So these are the top two that I think have really kind of taken the world by storm here in 2025, um, that everyone's really, you know, been very aware of. Cause I know I've probably gotten five or six of those over time. Right. And, you know, it's funny because I feel like when I used to get them uh many years ago, it was always, well, it's trafficking. We were always like, it's trafficking. They're trying to track you, which could still be the case. But that's what you're always told as a woman is you don't click on those because they're trafficking. And now it's more so, okay, well, maybe it's not trafficking, maybe it's it could be too. But the another one is also that it could be is they're trying to find your financial information as well. So it's being mindful on both of those fronts. Um, we're talking more financial finances, finances here, but you know, those are big areas um to be aware of those two, um, which I think we're all kind of aware of and are pretty quick to delete at this point when they come through. Um, but another thing that I feel like is very common as well, especially, you know, around the holidays or birthdays, you know, um just the time where you're buying things is really um one Atlanta woman, even, which is really local to us, um, she had a dress that caught her eye online via one of the Google ads, Instagram ads. She clicked on it, um, went to purchase it. It originally said it was$400, but they were going to price it down to$40. It was on this amazing sale. Um, and so she purchases it and ends up that she never receives the dress, uh, never receives the dress, and her card was charged$700. And throughout the entire process, she looked like she was going through PayPal. Yeah. Everything was very official looking. Right. Um, but it ended up being, and it's one of those cases of it's too good to be true, likely. Right. You know, it's just one of those things where you have to, and it's really tough, even in those moments, to say, Oh, how was I supposed to know that? Like it all looks so official, you know. And so it was just one of those things that was even noted by, you know, the FBI in Atlanta as one of those just be aware of because it is something that um they're calling it now malvertising.

SPEAKER_02

Um I can see that living on Facebook Marketplace pretty much.

SPEAKER_04

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_02

Especially with cars. You sometimes you see a car on Facebook Marketplace, you're like, that's a really good deal. And you're just like, uh I don't think you can buy a forward dev 250 for$50,000. It's like brand new. Uh that's not gonna happen, right?

SPEAKER_04

Definitely. And then something else they um commented on as well here um from the FBI was sometimes they're even seeing that with Google results, being mindful of those, because just because a website shows up at the top, even if it's promoted or advertised as a result, yeah, it can still mean that it's illegitimate. So just be mindful of that.

SPEAKER_02

Because they've done a good job of fooling Google or just paid did paid advertising to get themselves to the top.

SPEAKER_04

Exactly. So just be very mindful there. Um, really a good way to even kind of see this um is maybe, well, not even because they can fake reviews now. So I was gonna say maybe even looking at reviews of products before you purchase those. But our reviews are real at that point.

SPEAKER_02

You know, our firm. Our view, our reviews are real.

SPEAKER_04

Um so really um look when you're looking to do whether it's online shopping, making sure your deliveries are on time, charity donations, those kinds of things, that's really making sure you're doing that through the official websites. So if you're going to donate and say you're donating to the Salvation Army, well, then make sure you're donating to the Salvation Army directly through their website.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

Shopping, Shipping, And Charity Scams

SPEAKER_04

Or if you're donating to a local charity, make sure you're doing that directly through that charity's website or you're contacting their local office directly. You know, don't try and do this separately outside of those parameters because you could open yourself up to a scam. And then for tracking those packages, make sure you're only tracking those via the retailer or even via, you know, the shipment company as well. Um so just making sure that you're only utilizing those known links that you have and not really venturing out to any other opportunity there.

SPEAKER_02

Good advice. So uh scammers playbook is urgency, fear, uh, secrecy, isolation, authority impersonation, uh, fix it now with this payment method. These are all indications that something is not right. And honestly, I think our gut tells us that, right? Definitely. Our gut kind of says, like, this doesn't quite seem right to me. Yes. Uh kind of my Amex experience or my fake Amex experience. Uh so what do we what do we do if we think we're targeted?

SPEAKER_04

Stop communication with whoever you're talking to at that point. So whether it's just hanging up the phone um or stopping, you know, any online communication, and then don't send any money.

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_04

Especially if it's like or any more money to recover money, anything like that, you should not have to send money. Um, and then call your bank using, you know, a trusted number that you've already contacted them through, or going if your bank is brick and mortar, going to the office itself.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Um, or the branch itself, you know. Um, and then also if you do find yourself victim to one of these, then make sure you're reporting that to the Federal Trade Commission website or report site, as well as the FBI. They have the internet crime um segment now. So it's called the IC3. Um, and so you can also report cyber-enabled fraud there as well. Um, and also just make sure that you're sharing these warnings with your friends and family because you know, you can only act as well as you're educated. Um, so definitely something there to just encourage your, you know, loved ones and your um friends there as well, even if it's, you know, round a nice table at dinner, just saying, hey, this is, you know, what we're focused on moving forward and making sure that you're not victim to one of these.

SPEAKER_02

All good advice. Uh thank you, Michaela. Thanks for listening to today's episode. If you're interested in learning more about wiser wealth management, want to schedule a consultation to meet with one of our fiduciary financial advisors, you can do so by going to wiserinvestor.com or clicking the link in the episode notes. See you guys next week.

SPEAKER_00

Thanks for listening to a Wiser Retirement Podcast. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Make sure to subscribe wherever you're listening. That way you don't miss any new episodes. We'd also appreciate if you could leave a rating and review. If you have any questions about anything that was discussed today, head to wiserinvestor.com and reach out. This podcast is strictly for informational purposes only and is not to be considered as investment advice or solicitation to buy or sell any financial products, securities, digital assets, or any other investment vehicles or a basis to make any financial decisions. Wiser Wealth Management Incorporated is a registered investor advisor with the SEC. The host andor guest may personally own securities, digital assets, or other investment vehicles mentioned on this podcast. Neither the host nor guest of the show are compensated for their. Participation, and no referral fees are paid to or received by any host or guest for clients, listeners, or similar interests. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor, tax professional, insurance professional, andor legal professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.