Prevent Companies From Auto-Dialing Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant
We talked about how fake business listings can show up on Google Maps despite Google’s policies and exploit the appearance of legitimacy to exploit customers and other businesses. As it turns out, it’s pretty easy for AI assistants to fall prey to fake information.
Let’s say you’re trying to contact a company and you ask a digital assistant like Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant to find and call the company’s phone number for you. If the phone number the assistant chooses is fake, you can talk to someone who pretends to work for the company you called. In fact, this person may be a scammer who will then try to get you to send him money or other personal information.
Honestly, your AI helpers are not to blame; they are simply doing the task they were asked to do. The number they find is the number they call. The Better Business Bureau explained why the inconsistency occurs in a recent article:
Scammers create fake customer service numbers and place them at the top of search results, often at the expense of advertising. When Siri, Alexa, or another device performs a voice search, the algorithm can randomly select a scam number.
One recent victim told BBB.org/ConTracker that she used voice search to find and call support for major airlines. She wanted to change seats on the upcoming flight, but the scammer tried to trick her into paying $ 400 with prepaid gift cards, insisting that the airline was running a special promotion. In another report, a consumer used Siri to call their printer’s support number. Instead, he ended up in a tech support scam.
Perhaps future updates or better regulations will reduce these types of scams in the future, but as with most things in life, the best solution is to simply be mindful of the risk and take preventive measures to avoid falling prey to such opportunistic scams.
- Don’t use your assistants for company calls. Find a company and call them.
- If you use your company assistants, check the number they are dialing.
- When signing up for a service or paying for anything in these conversations, use your credit card – it will be easier to dispute the payment later if you were cheated.
- Don’t transfer money to business.
- Do not use other payment methods that feel odd — normal business really really wants you to pay for normal service with gift cards, for example.
- Do not provide more information than necessary. Chances are, the “airline” you called probably doesn’t need your Social Security number to change seats on your upcoming flight.
- Use common sense; If a company in which you are called, seem strange or annoying requests information that is likely to have to be at it, you can apologize, hang up and call back to the company, stating the number which you have confirmed is accurate.
We also recommend that you check out our previous post on how to identify and report fake businesses on Google Maps , as this is where most of the questionable contact information comes from in the first place.