Did you know Texas is the 2nd most robocalled state in the country?
NORTH TEXAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) – Texas is the second most robocalled state in the country. In the last month, more than 30 million robocalls were made to people living in DFW and nearly 800 million were made statewide.
Bad actors are taking it a step further, using artificial intelligence to sound like your loved ones in hopes of swindling you out of your hard-earned cash.
Experts say elderly and foreign students gets targeted more. Foreign students get asked for money to process visas, country registration costs, etc. The elderly gets targeted for all the scams, including unneeded insurance, wanted donations, a family member in jail, etc.
These calls are happening despite federal legislation to crack down on them. This is because federal legislation stopped call spoofing, not scamming.
"Bad actors will always try to take advantage of us as consumers," said Greg Bohl, chief data officer at TNS. "Be vigilant in terms of if somebody is asking you for money directly… be aware it's probably somebody that shouldn't be asking for money. It's a bad actor."
About $65 billion was lost in 2022 to these robocalls, according to robokiller.
Here are tips to avoid getting scammed:
- Never give in to a payment
- Create a safe word for your loved ones
- Hang up and call the family member to verify it is them
- Ask for a phone number to call back as a stalling tactic
If you believe you are the victim of a scam, you can report it to your local police, the State Attorney General's office, and the FCC.
