Impersonation Schemes: A Big Headache for Companies
This is “Fraud Happens” first guest post. ildar khakimov is a Montreal based internet enthusiast who co-founded several projects including callcenter.com
Companies suffer staggering losses when it comes to impersonation scams.
A good example can be seen in a documentary called “Yes, men fix the world”, in which two men setup fake press conferences on behalf of companies to spread false news.
It’s believed that Dow Chemicals suffered a 2 billion dollar loss as a result of the duo’s fake news announcement which alleged the company’s planned to pay out compensation for the Bhopal Disaster.
So what about the more common forms of impersonation, such as the use of fake caller IDs?
Caller ID spoofing can be even more dangerous because it’s not a single person hitting a single target, but rather a large telecom fraud machine that’s able to place thousands of calls or send millions of SMS messages pretending to be someone they’re not.
Most recent example is fake SMS giftcard scam. In 2012, many individuals started receiving messages that claim they won a free giftcard from Best Buy. The SMS was asking people to visit a specific web-site to claim a prize that didn’t exist.
People that got duped went straight to Best Buy and demanded their “winnings”. This forced Best Buy to spend company resources in order to explain consumers that they got scammed.
In addition, it’s hard to put a monetary value on Best Buy’s tarnished reputation. For example many consumers, who leave complaints on sites like callercenter.com, believe that Best Buy gave out their personal information to telemarketers and that perhaps their personal information was compromised due to company’s inefficient security measures. Even if such allegations are later proven false, the damage to the company’s image has already been done.
One such complaint goes: “[…]Walmart employees are in on it, or Walmart’s IT security is **** and they were hacked? I paid for my purchase with a credit card, so I certainly hope that wasn’t leaked along with my phone #. One thing’s for sure: I will never step foot in a Walmart again!”
Another popular fraud conducted via SMS while showing a fake caller ID is known as Smishing. It consists of a banking notification from crooks who pretend to be the victim’s bank. The SMS threatens the victim to shut down their account unless they login to a specific web-site.
Login information entered is stolen and then used by fraudsters to siphon funds to off shore accounts.
Banks often reimburse stolen funds and thus suffer financial losses from caller ID spoofing. These types of scams are on the rise. A survey of 95 financial institution by ABA show a 260% increase of such scams in 2011 compared to 2009.
In addition to that, banks have to spend millions on security to help fight smishing fraud, in an interview with USA Today, Carol Kaplan of American Bankers Association admitted: “[…]there continues to be huge gobs of investment into shoring up security.”
It’s hard to estimate how much money companies lose because of Caller ID spoofing, but it’s a very significant amount and the situation won’t change until this practice is more strongly regulated by the government.
Now the fraudsters have started spoofing caller IDs making it look like they’re calling from the U.S government to offer a free grant. Who knows, maybe now the government will take notice?
If you are interested in writing a guest post, please email me – pmccormack@connectics.biz. I look forward to hearing from you.