One reason that scammers are so difficult to stop, security experts say, is that they keep raising their game. Here are six of the scams that experts say you should be watching out for this year:
1. Check cooking scam: thieves take a digital picture of a stolen check and then use commercially available software to alter it.
2. Voiceprint Scams: thieves capture a recording of your voice and then use a software program to generate an imitation “deepfake” version that can be used to impersonate you.
3. Delayed-action sweepstakes scam: scammers will ask for personal information so that they can validate you and set up the payout. They’ll write small checks on your account to see whether you notice the fraudulent activity. If you don’t, they’ll continue to use the account to obtain credit cards and lines of credit
4. Virtual celebrity scam: this method became more popular during covid when stars who couldn’t make public appearances tried to stay connected with their fans by doing online concerts and other events on social media.
5. Multistage grandparent scam: crooks call and pretend to be a grandchild who’s been arrested and needs bail money to get out of a nonexistent legal jam.
6. Paris Olympics scams: With the Paris games coming up this summer, Olympics officials are warning ticket seekers to avoid bogus ticketing sites and scam emails purporting to be from Paris 2024 (the official website for the games) or the Olympic committee.
Faith in Action of Marathon County 