Don’t fall victim to any family imposter scams

Grandparents Day was Sept. 7, which prompted the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP), to reach out, to keep Wisconsin grandparents – as well as their children and grandchildren – informed about the latest scams affecting them and their families. Older consumers may be more likely to lose large amounts of money or lifelong savings to scams, because they may be unfamiliar with the advanced technologies used by scammers, and they could face social isolation or ailments that make them vulnerable to an experienced scammer. One scam that is frequently used to steal the hardearned money of older consumers, is commonly called the “grandparents scam.” This scam begins with someone calling, claiming to be a grandchild or loved one. The caller claims they are in trouble and need money quickly, for tuition or textbooks, to fix a car, to get out of jail, for hospital bills, legal troubles or to return home from a foreign country. They beg the grandparent to wire money or send cryptocurrency, and to keep the request a secret. Typically, once the grandparent realizes the caller is not their grandchild, the money they sent is long gone and irretrievable. In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) powered technology, like voice cloning, has made the grandparents scam even more convincing and dangerous. Cyber criminals can use short clips of a loved one speaking from content posted online, recreate their voice using AI and manipulate the voice to say anything over the phone. This technology makes grandparents scams more likely to be successful, as it can be difficult to detect whether the caller is a scammer, based off voice alone. To help grandparents, parents and older family members avoid the grandparents scam, the following should be done: • Discuss grandparent scams and the common signs of one. Signs include urgency and intimidation, demands for secrecy and can include an unfamiliar phone number. • Resist the urge to act right away. Hang up and contact the person the caller claims to be directly. If that person can’t be reached, contact another relative or friend of the family member. • Create a family passcode, so that if a caller ever asks for money to be sent over the phone, family members will know to ask for the family passcode first. This allows loved ones to take control of the conversation and determine whether the call is genuine. Consumers who believe they have been scammed should inform their financial institutions and local law enforcement authorities right away. For more information and consumer protection resources, or to file a complaint, visit ConsumerProtection.wi.gov or contact the Consumer Protection Hotline, at 800-422-7128.