92. Resident Exclusive Miniseries- Financial Scams and Social Engineering

In this resident exclusives episode, James Peck walks you through the alarming rise of financial scams—especially those that target older adults. You’ll learn how scammers are using social engineering, spoofed phone numbers, and even AI-generated voices to exploit trust and urgency.

James breaks down the top three scam types hitting communities hardest:

1. Bank impersonation calls
2. “Family emergency” voice scams
3. Tech support refund scams

Each segment includes real-life examples and actionable steps residents and families can take to stay safe.

Key Takeaways:

• Scammers “hack trust,” not devices
• Why you should never share 2FA codes over the phone
• AI voice cloning is real—and dangerous
• Simple steps to verify if a call or message is legit
• Why tech education is critical in senior living communities

Resources Mentioned:

• FTC Report Fraud
• Imposter Scam Info from USA.gov
• Fake Emergency Scams from the FTC
• Learn more about Tech@Home services: www.parasolalliance.com

Empower yourself with knowledge and stay ahead of today’s digital threats.

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Transcript

Hello everyone. Welcome back to Our Tech@Home podcast series. My name is James Peck and I'm a tech at home technician based outta Wisconsin. Today I'd like to spread awareness about some of the latest financial scams, how they work, and what you can do to recognize them and protect yourself.

So let's get some perspective on the issue. In the US alone reported scams measured losses in the billions last year. These are not just estimates, these are only the people who came forward and reported their losses to the FTC. And in my opinion, this is probably a giant underestimate some other important data to understand is who's being affected and how.

Younger adults in this FTC study between the ages of 20 and 29 reported more frequent financial losses to scams while older adults, 70 plus [00:01:00] had the highest financial impact. But with all these numbers, how does a scammer actually convince somebody to send them money? It seems obvious to maybe you and I, if someone asks, "Hey, I need this much money to do X, Y, Z", you would tell 'em, "Hey, I don't know who you are.

I'm not gonna give you that."

 How does a scammer convince somebody to send them money? They do it through something called social engineering and social engineering scams that are just scams that manipulate people, not necessarily the technology. Social engineering will convince a victim based on their emotions like urgency, fear, or trust to do something, provide passwords, send money, et cetera.

And during a scam using social engineering, the scammer can sound very convincing or even professional. And the best way to categorize this is that these scams don't necessarily hack [00:02:00] your device. They hack your trust. Why did these scams work? Scammers are skilled actors and you definitely don't wanna underestimate them.

They can use real names, they can use spoofed phone numbers. And what that means is their phone number may appear to reflect a reputable business or person that you know. And on top of that, they use convincing stories on reasons why you should follow along with. Giving them money, giving them passwords, et cetera.

And worst of all, they exploit the emotions and common tech fears that people have.

Another reason why these scams don't work well in the modern age, scammers don't work alone anymore. Often they're a part of a criminal organization. We'll provide them training and resources on how to scam people. Typically they'll operate in foreign jurisdictions that lack justice to name a few, just generally Southeast Asia and African regions.

 In this presentation, I'd like to cover [00:03:00] three of the most recent and impactful scams that are affecting people across the world. The first one is bank impersonation calls. Have you ever received a call from your bank or someone claiming to be. Or do you know anybody who's had a similar experience?

So what happens in a bank impersonation call? It's pretty straightforward. A scammer will pretend to be your bank's fraud department or some other associate. They may spoof their caller ID to look like it's your real bank when they call and they do this. So they can guarantee that you'll answer the phone.

And once they have you on the phone, they'll claim that your bank account has some suspicious activity or needs some other urgent action or correction.

So what do they actually ask for on this call now? They might ask you for bank account info or debit or credit card numbers, obviously to get your money, but they don't just ask you outright, and that sounds ridiculous if somebody on the phone asks you for that information. Unprompted a more sneaky way that they can get this money out of [00:04:00] you is they may ask for a verification code.

These are real codes that get sent to your phone. These are also known as your two-factor authentication codes. So what would happen is while you're on the phone with the scammer, they might be trying to log into your bank account, but even if they have your username and password correct, they get stuck at that second factor of authentication where it says, enter the one-time password sent to your phone or sent to your email.

That's why they're calling you. They're calling you to get that code from you. And if you give that to them. They can sign in successfully and have access to your bank account. So why it works? Scammers will use a fear. An urgency. They'll say You've been charged thousands of dollars or X, y, z. They may even reference real account information that you have on file from a prior data breach.

They might say, Hey, is this so and so with the account number ending in 1, 2, 3, 4? And using this information they sound professional. They can sound very credible, but [00:05:00] it's not your bank. So what do you do in a bank impersonation, scam. Obviously you need to hang up and call your bank directly using the number on your card.

Never give any verification codes over the phone. And this isn't exclusive to bank impersonation, scams any two-factor authentication codes, temporary codes, one-time passwords. All of these you never give to other people because as soon as you do, they can log into your account with the correct username and password bypassing the entire purpose of having two-factor authentication.

Another good thing to remember is that banks will never ask for full passwords over call or text. And think about the last time you did call your bank and needed something done. did the person on the phone at the bank tell you that they won't help you unless you go in? 'cause that happens pretty frequently.

So just remember that most real banks do refuse to do business over the phone, and that's as much to protect you as it is to protect them from being scammed.

So the second scam that [00:06:00] I want to cover is the family emergency or friend in need. So what happens? You may receive a call or a message claiming to be a loved one that's in trouble, whether they're hospitalized, arrested, stranded in a foreign country, et cetera. And if it's over the phone, the person on the phone.

Might actually sound like you're relative, and this has become a real problem thanks to ai. Scammers can take a clip of someone's voice, just a voice recording, and with that, few seconds of audio. They can essentially create a machine that can talk and read scripts using somebody else's stolen voice.

And during this call or text. A scammer will urge you to act immediately, and most importantly, to not tell anyone. So over here on the right is a picture example of a typical family emergency scam. Call scammer will say, Hey, grandpa, it's me. And people when they hear that they [00:07:00] might, fill in the blanks in their head, oh, Sebastian, is that you?

And now the scammer knows that their grandson is named Sebastian, and they will continue to lead you down that road until they get to the part where they're demanding money.

On that note, what do they ask for? For these, typically they'll ask for money to get out of whatever hard situation they're in, and they'll ask for it through obscure methods whether that's wire transfer, gift cards, sending cash in the mail. Et cetera. All of these methods are very hard to trace and nearly impossible to recover.

And that's why they are go-to methods for scammers. They also may be asking you for personal information and if you do end up giving something like that to them that information can be used to either further impersonate you, trick someone you know, or to access some of your accounts that rely on that personal information in order to be logged into.

Think about your bank account with [00:08:00] the security questions, street address you grew up on. Third grade teacher's name of your pet, et cetera.

 So why do these scams work? Once again, scammers will target your emotions. Fear, love of whoever's claiming to be on the phone. Urgency. And with ai, they can mimic the real voice of that person further convincing you that it's actually them on the phone. And in addition to this, scammers gain credibility by providing information that you wouldn't expect them to know.

So this could be the name of a family member or relative their age, or what town they're in, or other location information. And just because somebody knows these things doesn't necessarily mean that it's that person. Think about what people on social media post publicly all the time. Even just a simple picture of yourself at a restaurant could give a scammer all of the information that they need to know, who you are, who you're with, what time you're out, and they can use that [00:09:00] information against relatives.

So some key defense tips against this scam. If someone calls you or texts you, just pause. Think about what they're telling you and call the person back directly using your usual method. So if it's your alleged grandson, hang up the call, call your grandson, or call their parents, et cetera, you can just simply say, let me call you back.

And if the person on the phone pressures you into not ending a call, it's likely a scam. Never act on financial requests from calls, texts, social media, without confirming through a second method. And again, this is true not just for this scam, but just with anything in general. Always be sure of where you're sending money.

And lastly, if you really want to go above and beyond, you can ask questions of the person on the phone or create a code word that only your friends, family, relatives, et cetera, would know. So [00:10:00] your code word could be the name of somebody that you know a specific date, et cetera. You could also ask the person on the phone questions like, Hey, where did you go for Thanksgiving last year?

Or, what's your dog's name? And if the person on the phone can't answer those questions or gets really shifty about it that's another huge red flag that it's a scam.

And that brings us to our third type of scam, the refund scam. So in this, a scammer will claim to be from tech support another company, a bank, or other retailer. Some common examples that I've seen are from Amazon, PayPal, best Buy, or other local businesses. And what will happen is the person on the phone will claim that you're owed a refund usually due to some billing error or subscription cancellation, and they will offer to help you get your money back.

Typically they will instruct you to get on your computer and they'll say, Hey, [00:11:00] go check your bank account or check the email that was sent to you. And what they'll do is they might say, oops, instead of us giving you $300, we sent you 3000. That says a example. This can come in many different forms, but this is a common one that I see.

And once they get it in your head that you have too much money from them, they will pressure you to return the extra often via gift cards, wire transfer, cryptocurrency, and all the while no real money has been returned to you. And this is just a method of them literally getting you to send money. So what they ask for during this scam is complicated.

Sometimes they can ask you for remote access to your device and. What this means is they might tell you to go to a certain website, download this program some examples of remote access software, screen connect, team, viewer, any desk, et cetera. And this is legitimate [00:12:00] software that allows somebody else to remotely see what's on your computer screen, and in some instances, control your mouse and keyboard.

And once they establish remote access to your device. They will tell you to go log into your bank. And when you go and do that on a computer, think of them remotely connected as somebody standing behind you watching over your shoulder. They will try and see what credentials you're using, what bank you have, and this is all just a method to get more information from you.

And just a reminder that if you allow remote access to your device, scammers have full control over your computer. Anything that you can do on your computer, they can as well. So just to reiterate, this is a very dangerous thing and you do not just give anybody remote access to your computer. So they'll get your online banking credentials as you type it in, and they'll just try and turn around and log in as you or they'll walk you through it and they'll have you set up a transfer yourself [00:13:00] while you are logged into your account.

Another thing that they can do is they can tell you to go to a sketchy website, and in there it might just look like a regular form to fill out for a refund in quotes, and they might ask you to type in a refund amount or alter the display because they have remote access and make it look like you are overpaid.

Some key defense tips for the common refund scam is. First, never give remote access to your computer. I cannot restate this enough. Never follow computer instructions over the phone from anybody unless you absolutely know who they are, or if you called them first and they're on your contacts list.

Another thing to remember is that real companies don't refund money by asking you to log into your bank. And most often, if a company does make an error. They won't come after you for it. Most refunds and [00:14:00] other financial mistakes are corrected in the background through the payment processor, and most times the customers don't even realize because the money hasn't even been credited to their account, or it has already been fixed before it has been.

So

with these three scams in mind, let's talk about how to protect yourself. The big thing is recognizing the red flags. So between these three scams, they all rely on urgent requests. They might ask for secrecy because if you tell somebody that this is happening, that person would likely try and break you out of it.

They'll say, Hey, that's a scam. Don't do it. So by asking for that secrecy, the scammer can guarantee that they can get money out of you. They also might ask for money in unusual ways as follows there. And did you notice any other patterns as we went through this? 

So let's recap what makes the scams effective and what technology are scammers using so they can use familiar names or voices to convince you. [00:15:00] They spoof phone numbers or email addresses, they will put you into high stress situations that will push you to act quickly. And another thing to remember is that vulnerable people are most commonly victims.

But like we stated in the beginning of the presentation with those statistics, anybody of any age or background can be fooled and don't think that it can't be you because it certainly can be.

Another good thing to remember is don't trust caller id. When somebody calls you always verify who the person is over the phone. If you do answer and if they're telling you to do things or pressure, you pause before acting. You can hang up and you can call a known number. Don't share any personal info or send money without verifying.

And another thing is scams are always changing, so it's important to stay informed. And I appreciate you for joining this presentation, and this is just one step to staying informed on the latest [00:16:00] scams. If you think that you've been scammed, you need to contact your bank if it's financial related.

Also change your passwords if you've been scammed or you think that your credentials have been stolen in any other way. Changing your passwords is free and you can do it at any time from any computer. In addition to this, I've included two resources here for some further reading on the impersonation scams.

Then also the fake emergency scams. So on the bottom right there, you can use those two QR codes. And they also, I left the links for those resources in plain text at one and two. You can see those on the bottom.

In addition to those resources, I've left this link to the Federal Trade Commission's scam reporting tool. That's report fraud.ftc.gov. And here you can, if you think you've been a victim of a scam, you can report what happened. In addition to that, you can also [00:17:00] report attempted scams against you, and this website contains a lot of resources on recourse and next steps if you've lost money or if you're, you've been victimized.

Also you can start a conversation with your friends and family about scams. If you guys have shared experiences, that's always a good place to start and come up with plans like we talked about in the impersonation scam. Come up with a code word, come up with a contingency in case you think that somebody is trying to impersonate someone that you know.

And with this, just once again, Tech@Home can help with any questions that you have any assistance with resetting passwords or coming up with plans to stop scams before they happen.

And with that, thank you very much everyone for attending this class and I hope to see you on the next one.