The video highlights the increasing prevalence of online scams targeting Americans, particularly seniors. It reveals an alarming rise in digital fraud, with the FBI reporting that Americans lost over $10 billion to such scams last year. Interestingly, while people in their thirties filed the most complaints due to their high online activity, seniors are the group losing the most money to these scammers, often falling prey to sophisticated scams like the 'grandparent scam.’

Investigations reveal that scammers exploit vulnerable individuals using social engineering, artificial intelligence, and widely accessible technology. The video illustrates various scam cases, highlighting the emotional and financial devastation they bring to victims and the challenges law enforcement faces in tackling these transnational criminal networks. It also features ethical hacker Rachel Toback, who demonstrates how easily such scams can be perpetrated using online information and AI.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. skyrocketed [ˈskaɪˌrɒkɪtɪd] - (verb) - To rise or increase rapidly and suddenly. - Synonyms: (soared, surged, escalated)

The Federal Trade Commission reports scams like these skyrocketed 70% during the pandemic.

2. devastating [ˈdɛvəˌsteɪtɪŋ] - (adjective) - Causing severe shock, distress, or grief. - Synonyms: (destructive, ruinous, distressing)

She says as soon as the courier left and the adrenaline left her body, she was filled with a sick feeling. She'd been scammed. It's just devastating.

3. recourse [ˈriːˌkɔrs] - (noun) - A source of help or solution in a difficult situation. - Synonyms: (remedy, aid, option)

The scariest part of these scams is that these victims have no recourse.

4. spoofing [ˈspuːfɪŋ] - (noun) - Deceiving or tricking someone by pretending to be someone else. - Synonyms: (masquerading, faking, imitating)

So I used something called a spoofing tool to actually be able to call you as Sharon.

5. transnational [ˌtrænzˈnæʃənəl] - (adjective) - Extending or operating across national boundaries. - Synonyms: (international, global, multinational)

These are transnational, organized criminal networks.

6. ethical hacker [ˈɛθɪkəl ˈhækər] - (noun) - An individual who hacks into systems and networks to find and fix security vulnerabilities as a part of a legal operation. - Synonyms: (white-hat hacker, security expert, IT analyst)

Rachel Toback is what's called an ethical hacker.

7. impersonate [ɪmˈpɜrsəˌneɪt] - (verb) - To pretend to be another person for the purpose of entertainment or fraud. - Synonyms: (imitate, mimic, pretend)

Armed with basic information, like a relative's name, they can impersonate that person enough just by changing the pitch.

8. vulnerabilities [ˌvʌlnərəˈbɪlɪtiz] - (noun) - Weaknesses that can be exploited by a threat actor to perform unauthorized actions within a computer system. - Synonyms: (weaknesses, susceptibilities, flaws)

Tobac is the CEO of Social proof Security, a data protection firm that advises Fortune 500 companies, the military, and private citizens on their vulnerabilities.

9. polite paranoia [pəˈlaɪt ˌpɛrəˈnɔɪə] - (noun phrase) - A mindset of cautious skepticism when approached by unknown or suspicious entities. - Synonyms: (careful skepticism, cautious alertness, informed caution)

I call it being politely paranoid.

10. alarm bells [əˈlɑrm bɛlz] - (noun phrase) - A warning signal or sign of danger or a problem. - Synonyms: (warning signals, red flags, alerts)

If it's asking for something sensitive, urgent, or with fear, that's when the alarm bells have to go off in your head.

Cyber scammers target parents, grandparents for digital theft - 60 Minutes

More Americans than ever rely on alarm systems, gates, or doorbell cameras to help protect their families. But statistically, you are now more likely to be the victim of theft online than a physical break in at home. A new report from the FBI reveals that Americans lost more than $10 billion last year to online scams and digital fraud. People in their thirties who are among the most connected online, filed the most complaints. But we were surprised to learn the group that loses the most money to scammers is seniors. Tonight, we will show you how cyber con artists are using artificial intelligence, widely available apps, and social engineering to target our parents and grandparents.

The story will continue in a moment. It's like a death in the family almost. Well, she's worked so hard, you know, for my money. I sure have. Susan Monahan and her daughter Tamara are talking about how the 81 year old was conned out of thousands of dollars in what law enforcement calls a grandparent scam. Tell me about the call that you got. There was a young adult on the line saying, grandma, I need your help, in a frantic voice, scared, saying, I was driving, and suddenly there was a woman stopped in front of me. She's pregnant. And I hit her, and they're going to take me to jail. And, grandma, please don't call my mom and dad, because I don't want them to know. And I said, Brandon, it doesn't sound like you. He said, oh, I have a cold. Grandma, you think it's your grandson? I do. And he said, grandma, a friend of mine has an attorney that we can. That we can use and that we can do something about me going to jail. And I said, yes, of course. Monahan said.

The scammer, pretending to be a helpful attorney, got on the line. It was June of 2020 during the pandemic, and he promised to keep her grandson out of jail if she could get $9,000 for bail to him quickly. What other instructions were you given? I needed to make an envelope that was addressed to this certain judge that he was going to coordinate this through and right on there. And they gave me the name, the address, and everything else for this envelope. Did it sound pretty legitimate? Oh, absolutely. He had the legalese. Monahan is a tax preparer with an MBA. The scammer kept her on the phone as she rushed to the bank. What do you say? He said, when you go there, make sure you tell them that it's for home improvements, because they might question the fact that you're withdrawing $9,000. Minutes after Monahan got home with the cash, a courier showed up to take it.

This is video from the doorbell camera. You can hear Monaghan on the phone with a scammer as she hands off the money. She said to move your butt to get on a deadlight. She says as soon as the courier left and the adrenaline left her body, she was filled with a sick feeling. She'd been scammed. It's just devastating. What did they do to your mom? Beyond the money, beyond taking $9,000 from her? Well, it's your livelihood. Sorry. It just gets you, like, in your gut.

The Federal Trade Commission reports scams like these skyrocketed 70% during the pandemic when seniors home alone went online to shop or keep in touch with family. How much money were you scammed out of? 11,000? 314,000. 7600. Judy Adig and her husband Ron, a retired iron worker, were victims of the same grandparent scam as Susan Monahan. That's the view from their doorbell camera as the same courier took off with $7,600 of their savings. $7,600 hits hard. Well, that was for our, you know, if we want to go on a trip or something. It was terrible. I was a mess.

Steve Savage, a retired scientist, was scammed when he opened a fake email from the geek squad. The email said that your bank account is being charged $399 for another year. And I'm like, wait a minute. I don't remember it being anywhere close to that. The customer service number went to a scammer posing as a representative of the company. Savage was duped out of $14,000.

Esther Maestre was scammed, too. The retired nurse says an alarm sounded on her iPad with a message to call tech support. She did. He said that last night between four and 09:00 p.m. your bank account has been hacked and your heart probably stopped. You know, I felt so nervous. But he said, I am going to transfer you to another guy who is a security chase bank. That fake bank employee told her hackers might be able to access her bank account and instructed her to immediately withdraw money and deposit it into a new account for safekeeping. Maestra did and lost $11,000. And have you been able to recover any of your money? Nothing. Nothing. I'm the one that pulled the money out of the bank, so I won't be reimbursed. If your house gets broken into, you call the police. If this happens, there's no one to call.

Scott Parello is a deputy district attorney who runs San Diego's elder justice task force and connected us to the victims you just heard from. He says studies show only one in every 20 seniors who've been scared of report it. Often they're embarrassed. Most people who have not experienced this think, well, these people must have dementia or Alzheimer's. It's not the case. Our victims are sharp as a tack. We had a woman, 66 years old. She came home, she got a message on her computer from Microsoft, and the message said that she had a virus on her computer, and then that virus had somehow infected her financial accounts. Within a matter of weeks, this victim had lost $800,000.

Oh, my gosh. The scariest part of these scams is that these victims have no recourse. They're left bewildered. What typically happens, the seniors that have the courage to report that this has happened are being told that, I'm sorry, there's nothing we could do. And that is the reality. That a local police detective in Kansas City doesn't have the reach to go investigate a case that's being operated from the Caribbean or from Nigeria or Ghana. Investigators have also traced scams to Europe, Southeast Asia, and Canada under reporting.

To combat them, San Diego's elder justice task force has taken a new approach. Investigators collect every local fraud case, then collaborate with federal authorities to connect them. If we have a victim that lost $12,000 here in San Diego, there is, without question, dozens of other victims to the same scam and millions of dollars in losses. And then once we identify that the scam is part of something much larger, then we can deliver that to our federal partners with the reach to go around the country, because these are networks. These are transnational, organized criminal networks. In 2021, Parello helped the FBI bring down a network of criminals who stole millions of dollars from elderly victims.

Remember those doorbell videos from the grandparents scam? The courier, a 22 year old Californian, was the starting point for the FBI's case. She's serving time for her role. But the FBI says the scam's ringleaders, two Bahamian nationals based in Florida, fled the country before they could be arrested. If you don't know how a criminal thinks, then you really don't know how you can protect yourself. Online, Rachel Toback is what's called an ethical hacker. She studies how these criminals operate.

So, ethical hackers, we step in and show you how it works. Tobac is the CEO of Social proof Security, a data protection firm that advises Fortune 500 companies, the military, and private citizens on their vulnerabilities. We hired her to show us how easy it is to use information found online to scam someone, we asked her to target our unsuspecting colleague, Elizabeth. Tobac found Elizabeth's cell phone number on a business networking website. As we set up for an interview, Tobac called Elizabeth, but used an AI powered app to mimic my voice and ask for my passport number.

Oh, yes, yes, yes. I do have it. Okay, ready? It's me. Tobac played the AI generated voice recording for us to reveal the scam. Elizabeth. Sorry, need my passport number because the Ukraine trip is on. Can you read that out to me? Does that sound familiar? Yeah. And I gave her. Wow. What do you. What did it say on your phone, Sharon? How did you do that? So I used something called a spoofing tool to actually be able to call you as Sharon. So I was hacked, and I failed. I failed. Everybody would get tricked with that. Everybody would.

It says, Sharon. Why would I not answer this call? Why would I not give that information? Toback showed us how she took clips of me from television and put it into an app that cloned my voice. It took about five minutes. I am a public person. My voice is out there. Could a person who's not a public person like me, be spoofed? As easily can be spoofed? And oftentimes attackers will go after people. They don't even know who these people are, but they just know this person has a relationship to this other person, and they can impersonate that person enough just by changing the pitch and the modulation of their voice that I believe that's my nephew, and I need to really wire that money.

Tobag says hackers no longer need to infiltrate computers through a back door. She says 95% of hacks today happen after a user clicks on a text, a link, or gives personal information over the phone. You were able to hack my colleague, Elizabeth, who is a tech savvy millennial. What does that tell you? Anybody can be hacked. Anybody can fall for what Elizabeth fell for. In fact, when I do that type of attack, every single time, the person falls for it. She said hackers armed with basic information, like a relative's name found online or an app that can mimic a voice or change the caller ID, can create a convincing story.

If you were to receive a phone call, a text message, an email, and it's asking for something sensitive, urgent, or with fear, that's when the alarm bells have to go off in your head, and they want me to give something to them. I'm going to take a beat, and I'm going to check that this person is who they say they are. I call it being politely paranoid. Politely paranoid? Being politely paranoid.

Tobac has worked as a consultant for Aura, a Boston based technology company that created software to protect the identity, passwords, finances, and personal data for entire families in one app. So here you can see a full footprint of everything that's happening inside the family. Hari Ravishandran is the CEO of Aura. He says their software can reroute scam calls away from grandparents. If the parent is getting a call and we are identifying using AI that the call is a potential scam call, then they can route that call to me.

Does this stop the call from getting in? It does. So it just blocks the call. When the call comes in, it will have a recording that says, let me know who you are. What's your intent if it's an unknown person, if it's a known person that's already in your contacts, it'll go right through. Ravishandran says AI is also used to monitor finances and alert users of problems in real time. If I see a charge from my mom for $10 at Starbucks, that feels okay. But if there's a $500 charge from Starbucks, something's off kilter.

So we try to figure out with AI contextually what's different. But if something is off pattern, you can look at that and say, okay, well, something's off here. I need to go take care of this. San Diego Deputy District Attorney Scott Parello says more help is needed from law enforcement and the banking and retail industries to protect seniors. The FBI reports. Over the past two years, the losses from digital theft have doubled.

The trends and the data are horrifying. We have the senior population is growing exponentially every year. We have this dynamic of underreporting, and then we have the technology coming. People are convinced that AI is playing a part in maybe pretending it's the grandchild's voice. We're all just next on the conveyor belt, and we all need to do a better job, hear what it sounds like to be targeted by a grandparent scam.

Security, Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Online Scams, Elder Fraud, Cybercrime, 60 Minutes