Customer Alert – More Scammers Are Posing As Loved Ones

A new survey suggests that a growing number of scammers are pretending to be your loved ones. ClarityCheck — a platform designed for digital investigations, identity verification, and fraud prevention — recently conducted a survey of around 1,900 adults in the U.S., UK, and European Union. It found that 64 percent of respondents have encountered a suspicious message or call that seemed to come from someone they knew.

Of those respondents, nearly half involved a message or call impersonating a former romantic partner or close friend. Nearly 40% percent initially believed the scammer was genuine for several days or longer, even when the scammer asked for money or sensitive information.

These scams prey on people's vulnerability. Respondents who recently went through a breakup, relocation, or period of prolonged isolation were 52 percent more likely to engage with someone suspicious for an extended period.

To craft messages that "sound right," scammers lean on details scraped from social media, data breaches, and old contact lists. They may also hijack messaging accounts or create look-alike profiles, then push targets to move conversations off familiar platforms where safety tools exist. Voice cloning adds another twist, since a loved one's voice can be mimicked from short audio clips.

To guard against becoming a victim, take these steps:

• Pause and verify through a different channel. If you get an urgent request from a "relative" or "friend," call them back on a known number, start a fresh thread, or ask a question only they would answer.
• Scrutinize payment asks. Gift cards, crypto, and wire transfers are top choices for impostors because they are fast and hard to reverse.
• Lock down your digital footprint. Tighten privacy settings, remove old phone numbers and personal details from public profiles, enable multifactor authentication, and watch for login alerts.

As always, it's better to be safe than sorry!