Gordie’s Midday Gossip: Don’t get scammed

Beware of the scam calls

Unknown Caller cell phone stock photo (LAIM - stock.adobe.com)

If you just got a text from a recruiter offering $500 a day for a job you’re not qualified for, congratulations . . . and I hope you didn’t respond.

A new poll found Americans are the #1 target for SCAMMERS. The average person in the U.S. deals with 25 iffy messages a week, or three to four per day.

That includes nine calls per week . . . another nine emails . . . and seven scammy text messages. If you add it up, it’s more than a thousand bogus messages a year.

They polled people in different countries. And on average, Americans get targeted twice as much as everyone else. Brits are a close second at 21 times per week.

Americans also have the most emails sitting in their spam folder right now, an average of 350 of them.

Anyone can fall for a scam if they’re not careful, and 23% of people polled said they already have. Nearly a third of Americans admit they’ll sometimes answer a phone call even when their phone tells them it’s “Potential Spam.”

TOP “MODERN” SCAMS PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD FEAR MOST

AI-driven phishing (personalized AI messages written using data from social media or web history that are meant to trick individuals into revealing sensitive information) – 39%

Fake apps (apps mimicking legitimate services or vendors, but with malware) – 38%

Deepfake attacks (AI-generated video or audio mimicking someone you know, such as a celebrity, public figure, or CEO) – 32%

Voice cloning scams (using a friend or family member’s voice to create convincing calls) – 31%

Synthetic identity fraud (creating a new identity using a combination of both real and fake data) – 29%

AI-generated influencers and personalities (AI influencer and social media accounts, may ask for donations, merchandise, etc.) – 29%

Augmented Reality (AR) scams (fake or manipulated digital content within an AR environment; may involve overlaying fake offers, costs, etc.) – 21%

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