Cyber scammers target parents, grandparents for digital theft | 60 Minutes

Summary

In a gripping report by 60 Minutes, the episode uncovers how cyber scammers are targeting vulnerable groups, particularly seniors, through elaborate online scams. In the United States, individuals are now more likely to fall victim to online theft than physical burglaries, with losses exceeding a staggering $10 billion last year due to digital fraud. Fraudsters employ sophisticated techniques, such as AI and social engineering, to deceive their victims. The episode highlights real-life stories from victims who have lost substantial sums of money through scams, illustrating the devastating personal and financial impacts. It calls for better protection from law enforcement and awareness to safeguard against such digital threats.

Highlights

• Americans lost over $10 billion to online scams last year. 😱💰
• Seniors are most affected, falling victim to grandparent scams and others. 👴📵
• Couriers were used as part of scams to collect money door-to-door. 🚪📬
• Tech-savvy individuals also fall for scams due to sophisticated techniques. 🎓👀
• AI and networking apps aid scammers in mimicking voices and caller IDs. 📱🎶
• Solutions involve AI-based software and being 'politely paranoid'. 🛡️💻
• The global nature of scams poses challenges for local law enforcement. 🌐👮
• San Diego's task force collaborates with federal authorities for larger cases. 🤝🕵️‍♂️

Key Takeaways

• Seniors are prime targets for online scams, losing the most money to fraudsters. 🧓💸
• Cyber scammers are leveraging AI and social engineering techniques. 🤖🎭
• Only a small fraction of victims report these scams, often due to embarrassment. 😞📉
• Law enforcement faces challenges in tracing these international crime networks. 🌍🚨
• Ethical hackers like Rachel Tobac demonstrate how easy it is to spoof identities. 🕵️‍♀️📞

Overview

In today's digital age, more Americans are relying on technology for security; however, the greater threat now lies within the virtual world. The FBI reports that Americans lost a whopping $10 billion to online scams. Surprisingly, it's not the tech-savvy individuals, but seniors who are bearing the brunt of these digital frauds, as illustrated in the detailed recounts of those who have been victimized.

The scammers' tactics are comprehensive and deceitful, leveraging advancements in AI and exploiting personal connections through social engineering. Victims are often ensnared in elaborate schemes, such as being misled into believing they need to send money for a relative's bail, or that their bank accounts are at risk—a fear exploited by emotional manipulation and fake alarms.

60 Minutes not only sheds light on the terrifying ease with which these scams are perpetrated but also highlights a lack of sufficient reporting by victims due to shame, and the overwhelming challenge faced by law enforcement to counter these global networks. The episode calls for enhanced collaboration among technology firms, law enforcement, and the general public to bolster defenses against this modern crime wave.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and FBI Scam Report The chapter titled 'Introduction and FBI Scam Report' discusses the growing reliance on security systems like alarm systems, gates, and doorbell cameras for protection. However, it highlights a shift in common threats, noting that online theft is now more prevalent than physical home break-ins. A recent FBI report is cited, revealing that online scams and digital fraud cost Americans over 10 billion dollars last year. Notably, individuals in their 30s, despite being highly connected online, filed the most complaints about such scams. The chapter indicates there were surprising elements in the findings.
• 00:30 - 03:00: Senior Scam Victim Stories The chapter explores how seniors are disproportionately targeted and affected by scammers, losing significant amounts of money. It discusses the various tactics employed by cyber con artists, such as artificial intelligence, widely available apps, and social engineering, to exploit elderly individuals. The narrative emphasizes the emotional impact on the victims and their families, illustrated through personal stories like that of Susan Monahan, who expresses the hardship caused by such scams, equating it to losing a loved one.
• 03:00 - 07:00: Scam Tactics Explained The chapter discusses an incident involving an 81-year-old woman who was deceived through a grandparent scam. The scam started with a phone call where a young adult pretended to be her grandchild in distress, claiming involvement in an accident with a pregnant woman. The chapter sheds light on the emotional manipulation tactics used in such scams.
• 07:00 - 09:30: Preventative Measures and Recommendations The chapter "Preventative Measures and Recommendations" discusses scams where an individual pretends to be a family member or associated figure needing help, often involving legal or financial emergencies. A specific scenario is described where 'Brandon' pretends to have a cold, making him difficult to recognize, and manipulates his 'Grandma' into believing he is genuine. The scam progresses with the introduction of a fake attorney, suggesting the possible intent of extracting money or information under the guise of offering legal help. The narrative highlights the emotional manipulation tactics used by scammers and emphasizes the importance of awareness and skepticism in your interactions, especially during unusual scenarios.
• 09:30 - 13:30: Closing Thoughts and Call for Action The transcript appears to be part of a larger narrative or discussion related to a scam or fraud, possibly involving a supposed legal situation. In this snippet, someone recounts being contacted and convinced about a need to secure bail money ($9,000) for their grandson to keep him out of jail. The caller provided specific instructions to make the situation appear legitimate, including addressing an envelope to a certain judge with provided details. The speaker reflects on how convincing the scheme seemed. This chapter likely revolves around cautioning against scams and advocating for informed vigilance and action against fraud.

Cyber scammers target parents, grandparents for digital theft | 60 Minutes Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 more Americans than ever rely on alarm systems Gates or doorbell cameras to help protect their families but statistically you are now more likely to be the victim of Theft Online than a physical break-in at home a new report from the FBI reveals that Americans lost more than 10 billion dollars last year to online scams and digital fraud people in their 30s who are among the most connected online filed the most complaints but we were surprised to
• 00:30 - 01:00 learn the group that loses the most money to scammers is seniors tonight we will show you how cyber con artists are using artificial intelligence widely available apps and social engineering to Target our parents and grandparents the story will continue in a moment it's like a death in the family well she's worked so hard you know for my money I sure have Susan Monahan
• 01:00 - 01:30 and her daughter Tamara are talking about how the 81 year old was conned out of thousands of dollars in what law enforcement calls a grandparent scam tell me about the call that you got there was a young adult on the line saying Grandma I I need your help in a frantic voice scared saying I was driving and suddenly there was a woman stopped in front of me she's pregnant and I hit her and they're going to take
• 01:30 - 02:00 me to jail and and grandma please don't call my mom and dad because I don't want them to know and I said Brandon it doesn't sound like you he said oh I have a cold Grandma you think it's your grandson I do and he said Grandma A friend of mine has an attorney that we can that we can use and that we can do something about me going to jail and I said yes of course Monahan said this scammer pretending to be a helpful attorney got on the line it was June of 2020 during
• 02:00 - 02:30 the pandemic and he promised to keep her grandson out of jail if she could get nine thousand dollars for bail to him quickly what other instructions were you given I needed to make an envelope that was addressed to this certain judge that he was going to coordinate this through and uh right on there and they gave me the name the address and everything else for this envelope did it sound pretty legitimate oh absolutely he had the
• 02:30 - 03:00 legalese Monahan is a tax preparer with an MBA the scammer kept her on the phone as she rushed to the bank what do you say he said when you go there make sure you tell them that it's for Home Improvements because they might question the fact that you're withdrawing nine thousand dollars minutes after Monahan got home with the cash a courier showed up to take it this is video from the doorbell camera you can hear Monahan on the phone with a scammer as she hands off the money
• 03:00 - 03:30 says as soon as Courier left and the adrenaline left her body she was filled with a sick feeling she'd been scammed it's just devastating what did they do to your mom beyond the money Beyond taking nine thousand dollars somewhere well it's your livelihood sorry it just gets you like in your gut the Federal Trade Commission reports scams like these skyrocketed 70 during
• 03:30 - 04:00 the pandemic when seniors home alone went online to shop or keep in touch with family how much money were you scammed out of eleven thousand three hundred fourteen thousand seven thousand six hundred Judy attic and her husband Ron a retired iron worker were victims of the same grandparent scam as Susan Monahan that's the view from their doorbell camera as the same Courier took off with seventy six hundred dollars of their
• 04:00 - 04:30 savings 7 600 hits hard well that was for our you know if we want to go on a trip or something it was terrible I was I was a mess Steve Savage a retired scientist was scammed when he opened a fake email from The Geek Squad the email said that your bank account is being charged uh 399 dollars for another year and I'm like wait a minute I don't remember it being anywhere close to that
• 04:30 - 05:00 the customer service number went to a scammer posing as a representative of the company Savage was duped out of fourteen thousand dollars Esther Maya straight was scam two the retired nurse says an alarm sounded on her iPad with a message to call tech support she did he said that last night between four and nine PM your bank account has been hacked and your heart probably stopped you know I felt so nervous but he said I am going to transfer you
• 05:00 - 05:30 to another guy who is a security at Chase Bank that fake Bank employee told her hackers might be able to access her bank account and instructed her to immediately withdraw money and deposit it into a new account for safe keeping Maestra did and lost eleven thousand dollars and have you been able to recover any of your money nothing nothing I'm the one that pulled the money out of the bank so I won't be reimbursed if your house gets
• 05:30 - 06:00 broken into you call the police if this happens there's no one to call Scott pirello is a deputy district attorney who runs San Diego's Elder Justice task force and connected us to the victims you just heard from he says studies show only one in every 20 seniors who've been scammed reported often they're embarrassed most people who have not experienced this think well these people must have Dementia or Alzheimer's it's not the case our victims are sharp as attack we
• 06:00 - 06:30 had a woman 66 years old she came home she got a message on her computer from Microsoft and the message said that she had a virus on her computer and then that virus had somehow infected her financial accounts within a matter of weeks this victim had lost eight hundred thousand dollars oh my gosh the scariest part of these scams is that these victims have no recourse they're left bewildered what typically happens
• 06:30 - 07:00 seniors that have the courage to report that this has happened are being told that I'm sorry there's nothing we could do and and that is the reality that a local uh police detective in Kansas City doesn't have the reach to go investigate a case that's being operated from the Caribbean or from Nigeria or Ghana investigators have also traced scams to Europe southeast Asia and Canada Under reporting to combat them San Diego's
• 07:00 - 07:30 Elder Justice task force has taken a new approach investigators collect every local fraud case then collaborate with Federal authorities to connect them if we have a victim that lost twelve thousand dollars here in San Diego there is without question dozens of other victims to the same scam and millions of dollars in losses and then once we identify that the scam is part of something much larger then we can deliver that to our federal partners with the reach to go around the country
• 07:30 - 08:00 because these are networks these are transnational organized criminal networks in 2021 pirello helped the FBI bring down a network of criminals who stole millions of dollars from elderly victims remember those doorbell videos from the grandparents scam The Courier a 22 year old Californian was the starting point for the FBI's case she's serving time for her role but the FBI says the scams ringleaders two Bahamian Nationals based
• 08:00 - 08:30 in Florida fled the country before they could be arrested if you don't know how a criminal thinks then you really don't know how you can protect yourself online Rachel tobac is what's called an ethical hacker she studies how these criminals operate so ethical hackers we step in and show you how it works tobac is the CEO of social proof security a data protection firm that advises Fortune 500 companies the military and private citizens on their
• 08:30 - 09:00 vulnerabilities we hired her to show us how easy it is to use information found online to scam someone we asked her to Target our unsuspecting colleague Elizabeth tobac found Elizabeth's cell phone number on a business networking website as we set up for an interview tobac called Elizabeth but used an AI powered app to mimic my voice and ask for my passport number yes yes okay ready
• 09:00 - 09:30 go back played the AI generated voice recording for us to reveal the scam Elizabeth sorry need my passport number because the Ukraine trip is on can you read that out to me does that sound familiar and I gave her wow I'm sitting over there did what did it say on your phone Sharon how did you do that so I used something called a spoofing tool to actually be able to call you as Sharon and I failed I failed everybody
• 09:30 - 10:00 would get tricked with that yeah everybody would it says Sharon why would I not answer this call why would I not give that information toback showed us how she took clips of me from television and put it into an app that cloned my voice it took about five minutes I am a public person my voice is out there could a person who's not a public person like me be spoofed as easily anybody can be spoofed and oftentimes attackers will go after people they don't even know who
• 10:00 - 10:30 these people are but they just know this person has a relationship to this other person and they can impersonate that person enough just by changing the pitch and the modulation of their voice that I believe that's my nephew and I need to really wire that money toe bag says hackers no longer need to infiltrate computers through a back door she says 95 percent of hacks today happen after a user clicks on a text a link or gives personal information over the phone you were able to hack my colleague
• 10:30 - 11:00 Elizabeth who is a tech savvy Millennial what does that tell you anybody can be hacked anybody can fall for what Elizabeth fell for in fact when I do that type of attack every single time the person falls for it she said hackers armed with basic information like a relative's name found online or an app that can mimic a voice or change the caller ID can create a convincing story if you were to receive a phone call a text message an email and it's asking
• 11:00 - 11:30 for something sensitive urgent or with fear that's when the alarm Bells have to go off in your head and they want me to give something to them I'm going to take a beat and I'm going to check that this person is who they say they are I call it being politely paranoid politely paranoid politely paranoid toe back has worked as a consultant for Aura a boston-based technology company that created software to protect the identity passwords finances and personal data for entire families in one app so here you can see
• 11:30 - 12:00 a full footprint of everything that's happening inside the family Hari ravishandran is the CEO of Aura he says their software can reroute scam calls away from grandparents if the parent is getting a call and we are identifying using AI that the call is a potential scam call then they can route that call to me does this stop the call from getting in it does it just blocks the call When the Call Comes in uh it will
• 12:00 - 12:30 have a recording that says let me know who you are what's your intent if it's an unknown person if it's a known person that's already in your contacts it'll go right through Robert chandran says AI is also used to monitor finances and alert users of problems in real time if I see a charge from my mom for ten dollars at Starbucks that feels okay but if there's a 500 charge from Starbucks something's off kilter so we try to figure out with AI contextually what's different but if something is off pattern you can look at
• 12:30 - 13:00 that and say okay well something's off here I need to go take care of this San Diego Deputy district attorney Scott pirello says more help is needed from law enforcement and the banking and Retail Industries to protect seniors the FBI reports over the past two years the losses from digital theft have doubled the trends and and the data are horrifying we have the senior population is growing exponentially every year we have this Dynamic of Under reporting and then we have the technology coming
• 13:00 - 13:30 people are convinced that AI is playing a part in maybe pretending it's the grandchild's voice we're all just next on the conveyor belt and we all need to do a better job what it sounds like to be targeted by a grandparent scam s to go directly to the notary's office at 60minutesovertime.com