US citizens were cheated out of $330 million via text message scams in 2022, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The whopping $330 million lost to SMS scams in 2022 is more than double the losses in 2021.
And it’s nearly five times what consumers reported in 2019. Reports about text scams spiked in the first six months of the Covid-19 pandemic and have never returned to pre-pandemic levels though.
“Scammers use the speed of text communication to their advantage: they hope you won’t slow down and think over what’s in the message,” explained the FTC.
“Some messages promise a good thing – a gift, a package, or even a job. Others try to make you panic, thinking someone’s in your accounts. These are all lies and ways to take your money and personal information,” it continued.
In a screening of a randomly selected set of 1,000 deceptive text messages, it was discovered that the majority of fraudulent communication aimed to mimic well-known businesses.
Reports about texts impersonating banks are up nearly twenty times since 2019.
“Wells Fargo Bank Fraud Alert: Did you attempt a purchase at Walmart for $1,263.89? Reply YES or NO,” one of the sample messages reads.
If the recipient answers ‘YES’ or ‘NO’, they receive a bogus phone call from the bank’s alleged fraud department.
Last year, the reported median loss for this type of scam was $3,000. The victims of this scam shared sensitive information with the scammers, including their Social Security Number.
Scammers also enticed victims with the promise of a free gift from well-known retailers or even cell phone companies.
In the majority of the reports, recipients were asked to click on a link and pay shipping fees for a bogus prize that they would never receive.
Other scams include spurious job offers, fake package delivery scams, and sham Amazon security alerts.
98 per cent of people open text messages. As much as 45 per cent of people respond to texts.
Email open and response rates are 20 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively.
Considering that human error is considered to be the major cause of cybersecurity breaches, the numbers make sense.
Aggregate reported losses to text fraud by year are as follows – $67 mn (2019), $86 mn (2020), $131 mn (2021), and $330 mn (2022).
The top companies identified in 2022 reports about bank impersonation text scams were Wells Fargo (12 per cent), Bank of America (14 per cent), Chase (12 per cent), and Citibank (9 per cent).
