The FTC is Trying To Help Victims of Impersonation Scams Get Their Money Back (theverge.com) 8
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has a new way to combat the impersonation scams that it says cost people $1.1 billion last year alone. Effective today, the agency's rule "prohibits the impersonation of government, businesses, and their officials or agents in interstate commerce." The rule also lets the FTC directly file federal court complaints to force scammers to return money stolen by business or government impersonation. From a report: Impersonation scams are wide-ranging -- creators are on the lookout for fake podcast invites that turn into letting scammers take over their Facebook pages via a hidden "datasets" URL, while Verge reporters have been impersonated by criminals trying to steal cryptocurrency via fake Calendly meeting links.
Linus Media Group was victimized by a thief who pretended to be a potential sponsor and managed to take over three of the company's YouTube channels. Some scams can also be very intricate, as in The Cut financial columnist Charlotte Cowles' story of how she lost a shoebox holding $50,000 to an elaborate scam involving a fake Amazon business account, the FTC, and the CIA. (See also: gift card scams.) The agency is also taking public comment until April 30th on changes to the rule that would allow it to also target impersonation of individuals, such as through the use of video deepfakes or AI voice cloning. That would let it take action against, say, scams involving impersonations of Elon Musk on X or celebrities in YouTube ads. Others have used AI for more sinister fraud, such as voice clones of loved ones claiming to be kidnapped.
Linus Media Group was victimized by a thief who pretended to be a potential sponsor and managed to take over three of the company's YouTube channels. Some scams can also be very intricate, as in The Cut financial columnist Charlotte Cowles' story of how she lost a shoebox holding $50,000 to an elaborate scam involving a fake Amazon business account, the FTC, and the CIA. (See also: gift card scams.) The agency is also taking public comment until April 30th on changes to the rule that would allow it to also target impersonation of individuals, such as through the use of video deepfakes or AI voice cloning. That would let it take action against, say, scams involving impersonations of Elon Musk on X or celebrities in YouTube ads. Others have used AI for more sinister fraud, such as voice clones of loved ones claiming to be kidnapped.
Linus Media Group (Score:2)
Linus Media Group was victimized by a thief who pretended to be a potential sponsor and managed to take over three of the company's YouTube channels.
Awww, couldn't have happened to nicer people. So sad... /s
Seriously, from all the poor people getting scammed out of their life savings you open with Linus?
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think the point is poor Linus, rather that if it can happen to a group like Linus Media Group, it easily happen to anyone. Many people never report being a victim of a scam due to the shame thinking how much a fool they were. I work in CyberSecurity, even taking lots of precautions it is easy to miss some small thing or be subject to some new zero-day. It can happen to anyone.
Not the Nigerian Scam Recovery Agency then? (Score:2)
Well, the database of scam victims will eventually get hacked. Better not be in there.
Is this a bad April fools? (Score:2)
Effective today, the agency's rule "prohibits the impersonation of government, businesses, and their officials or agents in interstate commerce."
Fraud was already illegal before today.
Fool's Day aside (Score:2)
Let's remember what day it is: But that raises an important point.
When the internet became public-access 30 years ago, it was a black-box full of truth for people to see. Most humans still view the internet like this: It makes simple messages like "you have a virus" and "Ivermectin prevents CoViD" appear deep inside people's brains. They had to be taught "Anybody can say anything". Such scams work because many people are easily panicked and don't see inability of a disembodied voice has to harm (or he
Re: (Score:2)
Let's remember what day it is: The process happened to align to take effect today, nothing more. [ftc.gov]
Nowadays, young people also see the internet as a black-box full of truth - Everything you mentioned, old people are far more likely to have trouble with. It's old people, not young people, who fell for the "Ivermectin prevents (virus)" bullshit. Indian scammers target old people, not young people, [nih.gov] because they know that old conservatives are dumb and gullible as fuck and therefore make easy marks.
Re: (Score:2)
Old people have money, young people don't. Young people suffer identity theft instead.
A good number of young people succumb to various 'you owe money' scams, it's just 100s of dollars instead of 1,000s of dollars.