WBEZ and the Chicago Solar-Occasions are taking your questions on all issues funds. This week, we’re fixing an issue despatched in by Dan in Irving Park:
I used to be contacted in early April from an 855 quantity that mentioned they had been from AT&T and that there have been fraudulent prices on our account. They already had the account quantity and the cellphone numbers attributed to that account, the one issues I gave them over the cellphone had been a number of authentication codes. They, in flip, used these codes to hack into the account and switch the info of the cellphone line attributed to my sister. Inside 24 hours, she misplaced entry to her cellphone.
Scams like this one have gotten all of the extra widespread — and more durable to detect. How do they occur and how will you suss them out?
To study extra, we referred to as up an knowledgeable: Steve Bernas, president and CEO of the Higher Enterprise Bureau.
“This rip-off works by [scammers] wanting on the information breaches and all these different methods of getting your info or phishing makes an attempt on emails, the place you click on on these hyperlinks and supply info you shouldn’t to the scammer,” he advised WBEZ. “In essence, we wish shoppers to by no means act on someone calling you out of the blue, saying that one thing has occurred together with your account and we’ve obtained to do one thing to forestall one thing taking place additional. That’s what we name the tip-off to the rip-off.”
Have a monetary query you need answered by an knowledgeable? Go away us a voicemail at 312-312-2122.
