Imposter scams bilk New Mexicans of $41.3 million
If you’re inundated with spam calls on your iPhone — and who isn’t? — there’s a handy way to block them.
With iOS 13 phones and later, a function called “Silence Unknown Callers” blocks phone numbers with which you have never been in contact and don’t have saved in your contact list.
You will receive calls only from that list, along with people with whom you have texted, those listed in your recent outgoing calls and those who have shared their phone number with you in an email.
Unknown calls will be silenced automatically and sent to your voicemail. They also will appear in your recent calls list, where you can decide what to do with them.
It’s a great way to avoid disruption, but you must make sure you have saved important contacts so that you don’t miss the calls you actually want.
Here’s how: Go to settings, then phone and scroll down to turn on “Silence Unknown Callers.”
Thanks to the reader who pointed this out.
Email scams
If you have a Gmail account, watch for trickery that involves an email message with the subject line “New Sign-in from Unknown Location.”
It tells you that someone tried to log into your account from a new geographical location and tried to terminate the account, according to Scam Detector, a fraud prevention website. The email provides a button to click on that says, “continue with verification,” but the page it takes you to is fake. There, you will be required to log in, using your email address and password.
The fraudsters will have just won because now they have your credentials.
Avoid this by looking at the URL in your browser to see if there is strange text that includes “<script.” Also, even though the domain name might have an “accounts.google” reference, if there is extra text before “https,” the domain definitely doesn’t belong to Google, Scam Detector says.
Imposters
New Mexicans who were scammed last year were mostly taken in by imposter scams, in which someone pretends to be a trusted person or agency in hopes people will be duped into sending money or revealing personal information.
Those in the state who were victims of identity theft in 2023 were mostly likely to have been hit by theft or loss of their credit card, according to the Federal Trade Commission’s most recent annual report. Overall, New Mexicans who reported to the FTC lost a total amount of $41.3 million, for a median loss of $551.
The good news was that New Mexico fell to No. 39 among all states for fraud reports, according to the FTC’s latest Consumer Sentinel. Last year, we were No. 31.
A surprising tidbit was that the most common method scammers reportedly used to reach their targets was email. It’s a first, because text messaging had topped the list for decades. In 2023, phone calls came in second, while text messages dropped to third.
A few other notes from the report:
The dollar loss nationwide last year totaled $10 billion, a 14% increase over 2022 and the highest amount of losses ever reported to the FTC.
Those who filed reports last year lost more money to bank transfers and cryptocurrency than all other methods combined.
Contact Ellen Marks at emarks@abqjournal.com if you are aware of what sounds like a scam. To report a scam to law enforcement, contact the New Mexico Consumer Protection Division toll-free at 1-844-2559210, prompt 5. Complaints can be filed electronically at nmag.gov/contact-us/file-a-complaint/