What is “Scam Likely”? Putting the phone down on unwanted calls

Despite all the wonders of modern technology, it is often the old ways that we rely on most. That’s certainly true of communications. We may have email, video conferencing, text, social media and end-to-end encrypted instant messages to choose from, but some of us may still prefer the good old-fashioned voice.

Yet scammers know this, and they know that we may be most vulnerable when we’re speaking to someone. Humans are pre-programmed to believe the stories they’re told. Plus, voice is instant, giving us less time to consider our response and more opportunity for the scammer (possibly even when they’re a robocaller) to apply classic social engineering techniques.

What does all of this mean? That we need to get better at managing dodgy phone calls.

What does “scam likely” mean?

You may have come across a “scam likely” label or similar on some incoming calls. As the moniker suggests, this means your carrier suspects the person (or bot) at the other end of the line has nefarious intent. Other similar labels may say things like “suspected scam,” “potential spam” or “potential fraud”.

Phone companies have various means at their disposal to assess the likelihood that a call is a scam or spam. These include customer reports, and network analytics – for example, identifying if a number makes multiple calls to people on a Do Not Call List, in quick succession. VoIP calls may also be a red flag. Most operators will then compile these “scam likely” numbers into a database to check against.

One thing is certain, you should probably heed the warning. Research reveals that global phone fraud and spam reached an all-time high last year. Some 28% of unknown calls were fraud or spam in 2023, with 16% of consumers losing money. Although this figure is down from 22% in 2022, average losses rocketed by 527% annually to $2,257.

How did they know my number?

Even if you are on a Do Not Call list or similar, scammers can still get hold of your number. They could:

• scrape it from public social media accounts
• obtain it from a historic data breach of a third-party provider you share it with
• trick you into handing it over via a phishing email
• obtain it from a data broker – a company that collects and sells consumer information
• use automated software to generate and call random numbers in a specific area code

Counting the cost

While 16% of global consumers reported losing money to phone scams in 2023, the figure is even higher in some countries like Germany (19%) and France (18%). It’s also costing victims in wasted time. Consumers claim they spend nine minutes per week – nearly eight hours each year, screening nuisance calls.

What are the main phone scams?

There are several parties that may be responsible for scam phone calls: telemarketers who make the calls, “lead generators” who collect and provide them with numbers, and VoIP companies who facilitate illegal automated calls known as robocalls.

You might encounter any of the following:

• Impersonation scams: Also known as a vishing (voice phishing) attack, a scammer will pretend to be calling from a government agency, tech company, bank, utility, police force or other authority. They might claim you owe money or that they need to verify personal information. They may tell you that your funds are in danger and must be transferred to a ‘safe’ account.
• Remote access/tech support scam: A fraudster impersonating a legitimate entity will request that you grant them access to your computer, potentially in order to clean up a non-existent malware compromise. The software you download is legitimate but their aims are not. Once they’ve got access, they’ll look for sensitive information like banking logins and/or install real malware for persistent access.
• Investment scam: A scammer will make an unsolicited call promising you huge returns on an investment opportunity. The only opportunity, of course, is for the scammer to make money out of you.
• Prize draw scams: A fraudster calls up out of the blue claiming you’ve won a non-existent prize, and that to claim it you need to pay a small amount of ‘tax’ and/or hand over some personal information.
• Telemarketing calls: These could simply be spam calls from legitimate telemarketers, or more nefarious attempts to sell you overpriced or fake products and services.
• Robocalls: Some automated calls are legal and can be a useful, low-cost way for healthcare providers to remind patients about appointments, or for political entities to solicit donations, for example. However, they also enable phone scams on a massive scale. In 2023, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received 1.2 million complaints about robocalls. Although this was down from 1.8 million in 2022, the real number of spam or scam robocalls is likely to be far, far higher.

How to stay safe from scam calls

The simplest way to insulate yourself from scam calls is to heed the warning label provided by your carrier. You can use the same tactic for any unknown number. After all, if it is a legitimate caller, they will likely leave a voicemail message. However, it can be a tedious business screening large volumes of potential spam/scam calls. Other tactics could include:

• Signing up to the Do Not Call registry (or similar): Many countries run national registers like this, which are designed to stop most legitimate telemarketers from calling. There are apparently over 249 million actively registered phone numbers on the US DNC register.
• Contacting data brokers: These shadowy third parties play a crucial role in the phone scam ecosystem. You could contact them direct and follow their opt-out processes.
• Blocking known spam numbers: If you do pick up and it’s a scam or spam, you can make sure you don’t hear from that number again by blocking it:
• In iOS: Go to Recents, tap the “i” icon, scroll down and hit Block Caller.
• On Android: Open your Phone app, tap the three dots, navigate to Call history, and tap a call from the number you want to block. Tap Block / report spam. You can also set up a call filter in your mobile security solution of choice.

It goes without saying that you should never hand out personal or financial information over the phone, or allow someone to remotely download software to your computer.

What’s the government doing?

It was predicted last year that the cost of fraudulent robocalls to victims would increase 9% annually to reach $58bn globally in 2023. That should make it a matter of priority for governments to deal with. In the US, the regulator has in recent years issued multimillion-dollar fines against robocall firms, VoIP providers and scam companies.

However, despite the potentially major penalties for scammers, the rewards are often too large to resist. For that reason, it’s best to take matters into your own hands, and consider rethinking how you treat nuisance phone calls.