Especially Seniors Victim Of Phone Scammers

Especially to older Internet users get with phone scammers posing as Microsoft employees, victims light up in reality. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) testified this week before a committee of the US Senate.

In the first eight months of this year, the FTC received more than 18,000 complaints about phone scammers, mostly seniors. 76% of people who complained was at least 50 years old and 56% were over 60 years. Three years ago, the FTC conducted an international operation in which six scams, mostly in India, were shut down. Last year there was action taken against the scammers, who have ripped off by the US regulator thousands of consumers for more than 100 million dollars.

To tackle the problem structurally was last year in India, held an international conference in order to develop a long term strategy against this and other forms of phone fraud in India. Last month, there was a follow-up conference, but the problem still remains. Microsoft had previously announced that this year 3.3 million people will be lifted by telephone scammers.

Microsoft Testifies Before US Senate On Phone Scammers

Microsoft yesterday before a committee of the US Senate testified about the growing problem of telephone scammers. According to the software giant, his phone scammers like Microsoft Employees occur and so unsuspecting consumers try to lift the greatest possible fraud taking place in the United States.

It is estimated that every year 3.3 million people from such phone cams victims, mostly elderly. The damage of the fraud is estimated at 1.5 billion dollars. "This equates to nearly one victim every ten seconds, with an average loss of $ 454 per victim," said Athima Chansanchai Microsoft. David Finn asked Microsoft (pdf) at the Senate Committee to investigative services to allow monitoring the issue. There was also asked for better coordination between the various government departments so that call centers may be prosecuted to perpetrate the fraud.