{"id":44279,"date":"2021-12-03T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cb6419b6-d1b7-4950-8d83-bdeeca9c8aed"},"modified":"2021-12-03T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T13:00:00","slug":"its-a-truly-cruel-scam-heres-the-dramatic-way-google-is-trying-to-stop-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/its-a-truly-cruel-scam-heres-the-dramatic-way-google-is-trying-to-stop-it\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s a truly cruel scam. Here’s the dramatic way Google is trying to stop it"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The call comes. And your instinct is to react instantly.<\/p>\n

<\/span> Screenshot by ZDNet <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We all think we’re invulnerable. Until life events — or callous cyberscamming<\/a> sorts — prove otherwise.<\/p>\n

One momentary lapse of judgment, one careless moment of instant reaction, and we can descend into a hole from which it’s hard to emerge.<\/p>\n

A particularly cruel scam involves preying on those — the elderly or those not well versed with officialdom, for example — who are most willing to believe an official-sounding phone call is real.<\/p>\n

The caller may claim — as did one I received the other day — that they’re from the “Department of Taxes.” They may claim that a member of your family has been arrested and needs to have their bail paid. And, as panic may set in, the request is simple: you can make this all go away with some gift cards.<\/p>\n

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See also: <\/strong>Shopping online? FBI says beware of these holiday scams and phishing threats<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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That may sound completely scammish to most, but not to all. Yet, how can you get through to the most vulnerable?<\/p>\n

Cybersecurity platform Scam Spotter<\/a>, a non-profit collaboration between the Cybercrime Support Network<\/a> and Google, is trying something different. Instead of dire warnings that may not get through in a relatively dire world, it’s gone for the action movie treatment.<\/p>\n

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Its new ad shows us a grandmother<\/a> receiving a call late at night.<\/p>\n

“Your granddaughter has been incarcerated in a foreign jail,” begins the robotic voice. “She has provided your number as a family representative to pay her bail. The only form of payment we accept is gift cards.”<\/p>\n

Because that’s the currency of most foreign countries. Everyone knows that.<\/p>\n

In this case, however, instead of presenting grandma as a victim, Scam Spotter turns her into an action hero.<\/p>\n

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