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posted by martyb on Monday June 26 2017, @06:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the Betteridge-says-No? dept.

World-wide, credit card fraud and other scams cost the public billions of dollars. While credit card fraud is the clear leader in sheer volume of money lost, "regular scams" still result in a significant amount of money being lost each year. Globally, credit card fraud resulted in losses of US$21.84 billion in 2015. The so-called "Nigerian scam", usually perpetrated via email, totalled US$12.7 billion in 2013. Overall losses are likely to be much larger however, as many scams go unreported.

While scams that come in over email are increasingly being picked up by spam filters, around 45% of scams in Australia (and likely other countries) are by phone and text message.

Email spam filters are using machine learning techniques to get better at identifying the wide range of scams that can arrive in inboxes. This is by far the most effective way of dealing with scams, as the average member of the public has been shown to be remarkably susceptible. However, very little has been done about phone and text scams. This is surprising given scammers have quite brazenly stuck to using the same number or area codes over significant periods of time.

[...] Google and Apple should, however, be able to do more independently of these agencies. With the advent of machine learning techniques being used to analyse emails, it will be also possible to apply the same technology to phone calls.

[...] The list of other scam types is fairly consistent, and so is identifiable by software interpreting the conversation in real time. Governments should apply pressure on companies like Apple and Google to tackle this problem. Until then however, it is worth using one of the third party apps (like: TrueCaller, Hiya ) to ward off scams.

https://theconversation.com/phone-scams-cost-billions-why-isnt-technology-being-used-to-stop-them-80049

Do you have suggestions on how these scams could be stopped ?


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Monday June 26 2017, @08:10PM (2 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday June 26 2017, @08:10PM (#531506) Homepage
    E.g. from the 419 pages:
    """
    Total 419 losses around the world- The best 419 statistics ever published untill our 419 Unit published its first edition of 419 stats in March 2006, were given by Special Agent Craig Spraggins of the US Secret Service, who was Special Agent in Charge of the now defunct Joint West African Fraud Task Force in testimony before a US Congressional subcommittee in 1998.
    He said that estimated US losses per annum were $300 million, and estimated total losses worldwide per annum were $750 million (making the rest of the world's figure $450 million per annum).
    You can multiply that by the number of years 419 has been running (25 plus) to arrive at a figure of some $82 Billion plus dollars. There is no need to lower the estimates or take a more conservative point of view, since it has been a faster growing business since the year 2000 with an explosive growth since 2003.
    """

    Here's why I don't believe the figures:
    a) those ones come from the secret service, nothing says pulled-out-of-someone's-arse more than a government study.
    b) 25 times $750m is not $82b - the site we're supposed to trust can't even do simple arithmetic. Maybe these are imperial millions and billions, and the scale factor between them is more like 180 than 1000.
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  • (Score: 2) by tfried on Monday June 26 2017, @08:49PM (1 child)

    by tfried (5534) on Monday June 26 2017, @08:49PM (#531523)

    nothing says pulled-out-of-someone's-arse more than a government study

    I did not bother to up all the sources from TFA (which appear to be more than a single one of first glance). In fact I'm not overly interested in seeing any specific figure on "the" economic loss, here. But what I'm really wondering is: Who else would you possibly trust to come up with anything resembling an impartial and comprehensive study, on the topic?

    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday June 26 2017, @11:05PM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday June 26 2017, @11:05PM (#531625) Homepage
      I'd trust a peer-reviewed study from a university which is disinterested in the issue, and which has a reputation to uphold
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves