I was browsing some headlines last month when one about the number of fraud cases that U.S. consumers reported in 2021 caught my attention.
The headline stated that some 2.8 million consumers reported being victims of fraud in 2021, but that’s not what surprised me. Sadly, what most shocked me was that the number wasn’t higher — an unfortunate response from someone who always tries to view the glass as half full.
U.S. consumers reported losing more than $5.8 billion to fraud last year, an increase of more than 70 percent from 2020, according to data released in February from the Federal Trade Commission.
I’ve always considered myself pretty tech savvy and effective at spotting a scam when it comes my way via email, phone or even snail mail. I delete more spam email at the end of the day than there are hours in a day, and it seems I am blocking robo-calls and text messages a few times a week.
Three scam instances in the last two weeks most stand out in my mind, including one in which I erred.
Perhaps you were one of a plethora of mobile phone users who received a text message from yourself in late March. The message I received from my own number congratulated me on having paid my bill on time. It also included a link for me to click to receive a free gift for having just paid my bill.
It took me about as long as it takes Google to complete a search to know the text message was spam and nothing more than a scam. Apparently mobile phone users around the country received similar messages.
Two days later, a text message from an unknown 260 area code appeared on my screen.
“Are you their this is jermey,” it read.
I know a few Jeremys, including one who is an English teacher. All of the Jeremys I know are stored in my phone … and all three have better grammar and punctuation than the mystery “jermey” trying to pull off some sort of scam. Most importantly, they all three know how to spell their first names.
Those almost back-to-back scam attempts made me perhaps a bit too cautions when a letter arrived in the mail last month. The correspondence was from my mortgage lender and it was sent to my previous residence, as my wife and I moved about a year ago.
That mishap, coupled with what I thought was an overly pixelated image of the mortgage lender’s logo once I opened the letter, made me think the letter was a scam.
My mortgage lender was asking me to send a copy of my homeowner’s insurance policy to an address in Virginia even though the lender is located in Indiana — another red flag on my scam-o-meter.
I decided to call the lender to inquire before tossing the correspond in the same circular file where I store all scam snail mail.
I shared my doubts about the request with the employee who answered my call. She thought it sounded suspicious as well, but she wanted to check with her supervisor.
Several minutes passed before the supervision came on the line to say that the letter, in fact, was legit and that I did need to send a copy of our policy to the address in Virginia. Go figure.
Turns out my scam-o-meter was wrong this time. Erring on the side of caution, however, has become the new norm when it comes to even slightly suspicious correspondence asking for personal information.
jdpeeper2@hotmail.com
