A ferocious scam is making a comeback, thanks to artificial intelligence and other modern-day techniques like caller ID and social media messaging. <\/p>\n
Like some fine wines, some scams improve with age.<\/p>\n
Take the lottery\/sweepstakes scam<\/a>. That\u2019s the one where someone calls you on the phone or sends a text or an email informing you of good news: you have won a lot of money in a lottery. <\/p>\n But \u2026<\/p>\n Watchdog Alert<\/p>\n Are you a taxpayer in Texas? The Watchdog has your back.<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n To get your huge winnings you must pay a finder\u2019s fee, or a tax or processing fee, insurance, verification \u2014 whatever they call their made-up charges. After you pay, and only then, will your alleged earnings come your way.<\/p>\n How much?<\/p>\n Zero.<\/p>\n Huge losses<\/p>\n During a five-year period ending this year, the total losses this way in Texas were almost $37 million. The average loss to victims was $1,400.<\/p>\n This comes to us via VegasInsider.com<\/a>, which studies consumer behavior and financial risk. The goal is to help Americans distinguish \u201creal opportunity from costly deception.\u201d<\/p>\n According to their study, Texas ranks 11th in the nation in victimization.<\/p>\n VegasInsider spokesperson Amy Harris said in a statement, \u201cAI has made it easy for scammers to mimic a Texas Lottery official\u2019s voice and use caller ID. That combination is driving larger losses in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n She adds rule #1: \u201cIf someone asks you to pay a fee to claim winnings, it\u2019s a scam. No real lottery or sweepstakes charges a winner anything.\u201d<\/p>\n Seems simple enough.<\/p>\n Yet Steve Benton, anti-scammer go-to guy in Dallas, lays it out. By the age of 65, one in every 10 seniors in Dallas will suffer some sort of loss of cognitive ability. When a senior turns 85, it\u2019ll be one out of every three.<\/p>\n Benton is surprised that people keep falling for this scam.<\/p>\n Victims \u201cnever connect the dots that they\u2019ve won the European lottery \u2014 and they never did enter the lottery.\u201d<\/p>\n Your area code?<\/p>\n Could you get one of these phone calls?<\/p>\n VegasInsider says scammers use these area codes in Texas to spoof callers \u2014 214, 469, 817, 512, 210 and more.<\/p>\n In the five years studied (2020 to 2025), the total loss nationally for this kind of fraud was $660 million. But remember, because of shame and embarrassment, most of these crimes go unreported.<\/p>\n \u201cThe patterns are already the same,\u201d the study found. \u201cUrgency, secrecy and pressure to act fast. Real winnings never need that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cScammers borrow gaming language,\u201d it continues. \u201cJackpots, winnings, congratulations\u2014but the game is rigged.\u201d<\/p>\n I like their study because they contacted all the keepers of the statistics from the FBI<\/a>, Federal Trade Commission, state attorneys general, the Identity Theft Resource Center<\/a> and others.<\/p>\n Scam prevention<\/p>\n Benton is a financial analyst for Dallas\u2019 Elder Financial Safety Center<\/a>, which partners with The Senior Source<\/a> to protect older adults. The organizations work with the Dallas district attorney\u2019s office and probate courts.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sophistication of scammers is just getting incredible,\u201d he marvels. He\u2019s hardcore: \u201cDistrust everything. Never answer the phone. Never respond to the text.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt least we weren\u2019t number one,\u201d he said of the survey.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re wondering, who was tops (in a bad way)?<\/p>\n Poor Florida.<\/p>\n Note: Benton will speak to groups with more than 25 attendees. Contact him through the Senior Source at 469-382-4752.<\/p>\n In the Know<\/p>\n If you didn\u2019t enter, you didn\u2019t win. Every legitimate prize starts with your participation. No entry means no payout \u2014 ever.<\/p>\n Fees equal fraud. Real sweepstakes never ask for verification, processing or delivery fees.<\/p>\n Social media is not official. No genuine lottery or giveaway notifies winners through DMs, texts or social posts.<\/p>\n Pressure is a tell. Urgency, secrecy or \u201cact now\u201d language is a classic scam tactic \u2014 real winnings don\u2019t expire overnight.<\/p>\n Trust but verify. Always confirm prize notices on the official site \u2014 never through the link or phone number in the message.<\/p>\n Source: Vegas Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A ferocious scam is making a comeback, thanks to artificial intelligence and other modern-day techniques like caller ID…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2353,294,27,29,28,10322],"class_list":["post-54343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-commentary","tag-crime","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-watchdog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}