READ THIS NEXT: Never Buy Anything Online With This Kind of Card, FBI Warns. Scams are the type of crimes that have had to evolve with technology over time. And while phones have long been used as a tool to lure in potential targets, the digital era has only widened the tools available to crooks. The recent trend of receiving strange text messages from random numbers—or even your own—attempts to take advantage of how inundated we are with constant communications on our devices. Now, scammers are beginning to combine email or text messages with phone calls staffed by live operators to pull off their dirty work. One recent example is known as “callback phishing.” Authorities warn that the developing scam targets small companies and individuals by reaching out about an impending subscription or charge and providing a phone number that leads to a sham customer service center. Unfortunately, this type of crime appears to be taking off: According to data from email security company Agari, there was a 625 percent increase in callback phishing activity from the start of 2021 to the second quarter of this year, The Washington Post reported. But now, a similar type of scam is using a very familiar company to grab victims’ attention. In a recent example, TechRadar U.S. editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff described a run-in with such a fraudster that began with a seemingly simple notification message sent to his phone. The text claimed that his card had just been charged $649 for a mini projector, including an order ID number, purchase date, and phone number to call if the charge was a mistake. Ulanoff says he was immediately suspicious of the message as they’ve become a relatively common form of SPAM on our phones. But he was convinced the text came from scammers when he realized that the contact number provided didn’t match the number on the caller ID from which the message was sent. He also noticed that the text had a typo that swapped out an “o” for a zero, which is a major red flag in an official communication from a major company. RELATED: For more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter. In this case, fraudsters have instructed users to download the app onto their phones. “The Anydesk Remote app provides the impersonator with access to the victim’s mobile telephone, which includes bank and other accounts stored on the device,” the authorities explained. “Once access is granted through the Anydesk Remote app, the impersonators have stolen various amounts of money from the victims.”
