Learn how to identify increasingly sophisticated robocall scams to protect your hard-earned money from these dangerous criminals.
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00:00 (audience applauding)
00:03 Very important show today.
00:07 Have you ever, ever received a call like this?
00:11 - Hey, it's been a while,
00:12 so I figured I'd try to catch up with you here.
00:15 Last time we connected,
00:16 you were interested in making some serious income online,
00:19 so hey, I wanted to share this with you.
00:21 It's currently making me over $100,000 a month.
00:24 - $100,000 a month?
00:26 Or maybe you got a call from tech support
00:29 reporting suspicious activities.
00:31 - This is Molly from Apple support.
00:33 We have found some suspicious activities
00:36 in your iCloud account
00:37 that your iCloud account has been breached.
00:39 - What do you guys think?
00:41 - Yeah!
00:42 - We've all gotten those calls.
00:43 What you just heard,
00:44 you've all been getting them,
00:45 were fake calls using real company names
00:49 in order to scam you.
00:50 50%, one half of all phone calls are now automated,
00:55 and there's a brand new dangerous type of robo-call
00:59 on the rise that is ruining lives.
01:01 Today we investigate the shocking scams
01:03 that could be infiltrating your most personal information
01:06 to steal your money when you least expect it.
01:09 Take a look.
01:09 (phone ringing)
01:13 - Know that your social security number
01:15 has been used for some kind of fraudulent activities.
01:19 - They're not just a nuisance.
01:21 Robo-calls, which are expected to hit
01:23 a record 60 billion in 2019,
01:26 are a costly and dangerous threat.
01:28 - This is an urgent notification call about your computer.
01:31 - In 2018, consumers reported losing nearly $488 million
01:36 to imposter scams.
01:39 IRS agent imposters, debt collectors,
01:42 health insurance scams.
01:44 The spoofers are becoming more and more sophisticated,
01:48 and the calls becoming more personalized.
01:51 They use fake caller IDs,
01:53 or have the same area codes as you do
01:56 to make it seem like it's someone you know,
01:58 or more shockingly,
02:00 they know intimate details about your family.
02:03 - Phone scammers called my grandmother
02:05 telling them that I was in jail
02:06 and that they needed to send money
02:07 and I was too scared to call anyone else,
02:09 and they kept referring to her as my mama.
02:12 The only way that they would know
02:14 that I call her mama was from trolling my social media,
02:17 and she almost fell for it,
02:18 and it was extremely frightening.
02:20 - Others weren't so lucky.
02:22 - I was scammed out of $3,637.
02:26 I sent this money by cashier's check.
02:29 - They requested that I pay them a sum of $5,000
02:32 right then and there,
02:34 or they were going to send the authorities
02:38 to knock on my door and have me arrested.
02:40 - I gave him the $600 fee that he spoke of.
02:44 I didn't hear from them again.
02:46 So yes, I have been officially scammed.
02:49 - My grandmother was targeted
02:51 and pursued nonstop by a ring of fraudsters.
02:54 Angela Stanek testified before Congress
02:56 after her grandmother cashed in her life insurance
02:59 and remortgaged her home,
03:01 handing over her entire life savings to robocall scammers.
03:06 - My grandmother died with $69 in her bank account.
03:10 - The reality of her grandmother's mistake
03:13 was so overwhelming,
03:14 Angela says it drove her to suicide.
03:18 - It is clear to us that the circumstances
03:20 that led to her death were caused by these criminals.
03:24 - Angela, who you just saw, joined us now via Zoom.
03:27 Angela, I'm very sorry for your loss,
03:28 but I applaud your bravery in speaking out on this scam.
03:31 Now you say your grandma believed
03:33 she was being contacted by the U.S. Securities
03:35 and Exchange Commission out of Washington, D.C.,
03:37 our nation's capital.
03:38 Why did she think that?
03:40 - They were using call spoofing technology
03:45 to manipulate the caller ID to say
03:48 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,
03:50 also the Federal Trade Commission,
03:52 and all the phone numbers
03:54 were coming out of Washington, D.C.
03:56 - And what was the excuse they gave for contacting her?
03:59 - They told her that she had won a very large cash prize
04:05 and she had to pay the taxes up front.
04:08 And they were gonna facilitate that
04:10 and they were gonna walk her through the steps
04:13 to get the taxes paid.
04:15 And then she was going to,
04:16 they were gonna deliver this money to her
04:18 sort of like a sweepstakes.
04:21 - That's very believable.
04:22 So your grandma calls you to ask for some money.
04:24 How much money did she ask for
04:26 and did she give a reason for why she needed the money?
04:29 - My grandmother called me about 10 days before she died
04:35 and she was very insistent
04:38 that she had to have money wired to her that day.
04:41 She needed $6,000.
04:43 And I asked her what it was for.
04:46 She told me she was having an eye procedure done.
04:48 This doctor wanted to be paid up front.
04:52 I immediately told her, I said,
04:53 "Grandma, let me talk to your doctor on your behalf.
04:56 "Let's get this straightened out.
04:57 "There's no reason why you should have to pay
04:59 "for this up front.
05:00 "We're gonna work it out."
05:02 And she became completely panicked and afraid.
05:07 So I reassured her, I told her I was gonna talk to my father.
05:10 We were gonna work things out.
05:12 And I did.
05:13 And she had just borrowed money from him the week before,
05:17 $11,000.
05:18 So for her to now need another six,
05:21 it was a huge red flag, a huge red flag.
05:24 - So after your grandma's frantic request for money,
05:27 things took a tragic turn.
05:29 Can you share with everybody what happened?
05:31 - We got a phone call that she was in the hospital.
05:37 She lived in Louisiana and we're in Texas.
05:39 So my mother and my uncle, of course,
05:42 raced to be with her in Louisiana.
05:45 They did not get there in time.
05:47 Unfortunately, she passed away in the hospital,
05:49 but she took her life.
05:51 She took her life because of this.
05:54 - And then the compound matters.
05:57 In the midst of your grief,
05:58 10 days after you lost your grandmother,
06:00 there was another bombshell.
06:02 You uncovered something
06:02 about your grandma's financial state.
06:04 - We found, when we started cleaning out her home
06:08 after her funeral, we found bags full of wire receipts
06:12 where she had been sending large amounts of money overseas.
06:16 - So it took about six years,
06:18 but Angela finally found out who her grandmother
06:21 was really wiring the money to.
06:22 And the truth turned her family's world upside down.
06:25 Who took advantage of her?
06:26 - This was a call center in Costa Rica.
06:32 There were nine individuals involved.
06:35 She also did a reverse mortgage on her home before she died.
06:41 And we believe that they walked her
06:42 through the steps to do that.
06:45 So after she passed away
06:47 and there were new owners in her house,
06:50 they kept getting certified documents in the mail.
06:54 And it was the Department of Justice notifying her
06:57 that they had caught the individuals who were scamming her.
07:01 (audience applauding)
07:05 - Thank goodness for the DOJ.
07:07 So you had a chance to confront one of the scammers in court.
07:10 What was that moment like for you?
07:13 - So I flew to Charlotte to read my victim impact statement
07:18 while she was being sentenced.
07:21 I stood about 10 feet away from her
07:25 and I explained to her how horrific my grandmother died.
07:29 And I shared with her how the things that she did
07:34 led to my grandmother's death
07:39 and how she had my grandmother's blood on her hands.
07:43 - She's a sick person.
07:44 Angela, I thank you for speaking out.
07:47 Despicable actions.
07:49 - Thank you for bringing awareness.
07:50 Thank you.
07:51 - All right, so they caught those scammers,
07:53 but I wanted to find out more
07:54 about the other frosters making robocalls.
07:57 So I put an investigation squad on the case.
07:59 Up next, what we uncovered
08:01 about the length scammers will go to
08:03 and the access they have to you and your family.
08:05 It's gonna shock you.
08:06 Plus, what you can do to protect yourself from being duped.
08:09 (upbeat music)
08:11 (audience cheering)
08:14 We are back investigating the new robocalls
08:20 preying on you and stealing your money.
08:22 Now I wanted to find out who was behind the many calls
08:25 that I get on my phone each day.
08:27 So I sent Mara Scamacompo for my investigation squad
08:30 to help track down the scammers.
08:32 Take a look.
08:33 - Who are these scammers and how do they operate?
08:37 - Before we begin with the legal proceedings.
08:40 I started my investigation returning a voicemail
08:42 claiming to be from the Social Security Administration.
08:46 A busy signal, clearly a spoofed number.
08:49 These scammers move fast to cover their tracks.
08:52 I reached out to John Brailt at fraud.org
08:55 who works on the front lines of fraud prevention.
08:58 Who are these scammers?
08:59 - Well, the scammers are criminals
09:01 and they are often located overseas
09:03 where they are out of reach of US law enforcement.
09:05 - And how are they operating?
09:08 - Well, they operate out of high-tech call centers
09:10 where they can generate billions of phone calls.
09:12 They mask their identity so that your caller ID
09:15 looks like the call is coming
09:16 from Social Security Administration or the FBI.
09:20 And they use sucker lists to target potential victims.
09:23 - How are they so effective at duping people?
09:26 - Well, they create a sense of urgency.
09:28 They might say something like, "The police are on the way."
09:31 And they want you to send the money
09:32 before you stop and think about it.
09:34 - And that's exactly how one team of scammers
09:37 was operating in Fontana, California
09:39 when two of them were arrested.
09:41 I spoke with the lead agent in the case, David Campa.
09:44 - This investigation began when a citizen called
09:47 to report that he was called by a subject
09:49 who posed as a Social Security Administration officer
09:53 and demanded money from a citizen.
09:55 The suspect kept the victim on the phone the entire time.
09:58 The victim went to his bank,
10:00 eventually target, purchased the gift cards,
10:03 and then gave the suspect the gift card numbers
10:06 over the phone.
10:07 - They were on the phone with him the entire time?
10:10 - Correct, and that's another tactic they use.
10:12 Keep them on the phone
10:13 so they won't notify law enforcement.
10:15 - The overseas scammers evidently forwarded the numbers
10:18 directly to the suspects
10:20 who were standing by to use them immediately.
10:24 What did you find after you tracked down the suspects?
10:27 - We located over a million dollars worth of Apple products.
10:31 - Well, I'm a scammer from India.
10:34 Nobody must know who I am.
10:35 - YouTuber Ben Taylor specializes in scams.
10:38 - Well, I have a YouTube channel
10:40 where I kind of document these scams and how they work.
10:44 - We're really interested in understanding
10:46 who these people are.
10:47 - Like you and me, they're humans.
10:50 They have lives and they have families,
10:52 and many of them come from countries
10:54 where they live in poverty,
10:55 and so they resort to scamming.
10:58 And a lot of them do feel bad about what they do.
11:00 - Recently, Ben Taylor's been posting
11:02 about his relationship with an overseas scammer
11:04 who claims he now wants to save victims from being scammed.
11:09 - You're involved in a telephone scam
11:11 and you need to hang up.
11:12 Don't send them any money.
11:13 - I don't know.
11:14 What should I check?
11:15 - What can you tell us about this guy
11:17 that you've been in touch with?
11:18 - He works in a scam call center,
11:20 and he does it because it's hard to make a living over there.
11:23 He does realize that, you know, it's not right.
11:26 So he wants me to kind of educate people,
11:30 and he's been able to send me pictures
11:32 of what the call center looks like inside,
11:34 the scripts that they read.
11:35 His conscience is compelling him to speak out.
11:39 - And what have you learned from him?
11:41 - Here in the States, we might look at a person
11:44 who steals bread to feed a starving child,
11:46 and we wouldn't judge him too harshly.
11:48 Well, that's how these people kind of see themselves.
11:51 - Now, do you think that he would speak to us?
11:53 - This is potentially a million,
11:55 multimillion-dollar operation,
11:57 and so he's very, very cautious about who he speaks to.
12:01 But at the same time, you know,
12:02 he might be willing to share what he knows.
12:05 - Joining me for our investigation squad
12:09 is Marosky Abacompo and security expert Bill Stanton.
12:12 Bill, you looked into the most common phone scams.
12:14 Walk us through them.
12:15 - Well, first you have the imposters, right?
12:18 The imposters will pose as the bank,
12:20 your insurance company, the IRS.
12:23 You don't go for that.
12:24 Then there's business and job opportunities,
12:26 and they may be talking to you that
12:29 this is just a job you need.
12:30 How do they know?
12:31 Because they're profiling you.
12:33 Then you'll have tech support,
12:35 and unfortunately this happened to me,
12:37 and I almost pressed the trigger on it,
12:39 and that little voice told me not to do it.
12:41 And then you have other opportunities
12:44 where they'll prey upon you,
12:45 and they'll see the private sweepstakes.
12:47 If it looks too good to be true,
12:49 doc, it usually and probably always is.
12:52 - One of those four things will get us.
12:54 I'm a tech support fiend as well.
12:56 I'm panicked.
12:57 Something's gone down,
12:58 but you might be worried about the IRS coming after you.
12:59 So Mara, explain to me how they know so much about us.
13:03 They know which of those techniques to target us with
13:05 so they can make us more vulnerable.
13:06 - Yeah, so there are a couple different techniques
13:08 that they're employing most commonly.
13:10 The first up is the spoofing, right?
13:12 So that's where these scammers can make their number
13:14 on your caller ID look like it's coming
13:17 from a legitimate agency.
13:19 It can look like it's coming from the IRS.
13:21 They can make it come from a specific area code.
13:23 That builds in legitimacy,
13:25 because when you answer the phone,
13:27 you already think you're speaking to someone
13:28 in a position of authority.
13:30 - Right, area code, right, everything.
13:31 - Yeah.
13:32 - Now they know a lot about us.
13:33 Why is that?
13:33 - We are putting more out there through social media
13:35 than ever before.
13:37 I mean, look at this mock-up profile, right?
13:39 This woman says, "Grandma Beth."
13:40 Now we know how her grandkids refer to her.
13:43 She says she's retired.
13:44 She likes to travel.
13:46 She gives the name of her partner.
13:48 - There's Billy.
13:49 - So they're doing,
13:50 the scammers are doing all of their research.
13:52 They're gathering this information,
13:54 and they're using it to convince you
13:56 that they are legitimate.
13:56 And the more someone knows about you,
13:59 the more likely you are to believe them.
14:01 - If you call Bethany Smith and say,
14:02 "Billy's in trouble, help me out."
14:04 Well, they couldn't scam you,
14:06 especially when the area code's my area code.
14:07 All right, up next,
14:08 what are the biggest risks you need to know about right now?
14:11 I'll be right back.
14:11 (upbeat music)
14:14 Thank you for watching.
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