This content was created by Robert Siciliano. This content was uploaded by Robert Siciliano. This is a YouTube news segment titled "Beware of Contact Tracing Scams" (published 2020-08-26) from NTD. The clip features reporter Don Tran relaying guidance from identity-theft expert Robert Siciliano (Chief Security Architect, ProtectNow) about phone scammers posing as COVID-19 contact tracers. It describes common scam tactics (requests for SSNs or bank details, fake charges, threats of fines or arrest) and reiterates advice to hang up and verify calls via official government phone numbers.
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If a test is positive for the virus, you're expected to answer questions from a local contact tracer over the phone. But if you're not careful, you might actually be talking to a phone scammer. NTD's Don Tram spoke with an identity theft expert about scammers posing as contact tracers to steal personal information.
To contain the virus pandemic, contact tracers have been reaching out to infected people, asking them for information about whom they've recently been in touch with. Its purpose is to monitor the virus's spread. Health officials consider it very important, but the practice has been taken advantage of by phone scammers. Chief Security Architect of ProtectNow, Robert Siciliano, said these scammers pose as contact tracers to gain the victim's trust.
And this confidence crime is to make the victim confident that the person on the other end of the phone is who they say they are, and as long as that scammer comes off as being notable and confident in their delivery, then the scam is set.
According to the U.S. Attorney General's office in Montana, the scammers may ask for your Social Security number or your bank account information. They might also charge you for the fake contact tracing. Siciliano said the goal of containing the virus's spread makes it more likely for people to talk.
At this given point in time, the entire world— is engaged in a predatory virus. And when there is a solution on the horizon, be that a vaccine or a contact tracer, essentially, if you can provide information that will alleviate the problem, people are more willing to give up their sensitive information as a result.
In New York, state officials threatened fines of $2,000 a day to a group who refused to cooperate with contact tracers. Threatening people with legal consequences is a scare tactic used by scammers. Siciliano said to hang up if this happens.
They will threaten with lawsuits, they'll threaten with arrests, they'll threaten with fines, they'll threaten with some type of a loss of your freedoms. And the moment that you feel your blood pressure going up or there's some type of fear or threats involved here, then simply hang up.
Siciliano also said to call a government-issued phone number to determine if the call was real or fake. Don Tran, NTD News.
