The FBI prevents iPhone and Android users – Stop responding to these calls

Republished on February 2 with new fraudulent call reports from law enforcement organizations, where even these phone numbers can no longer trust, and advice on how to stay safe.

Be careful – it becomes more and more dangerous there. We are not yet in the month one of 2025, and the cyber attacks fed by the AI ​​that we have warned would dominate this year are already in full flight. And although there are macro level threats – Chinese pirates compromising our networks and our Chinese AI compromising our phones, you are always the most at risk of your own mistakes when you lower your guard against the influx of daily threats .

It is therefore with the wave of “Phantom Hacker” the attacks “currently targeting Apple and Android products”, which the FBI has warned “developing quickly”, and which relies on a usurped call from the bank of A victim who encourages them to transfer money to stop he is stolen by a nonexistent pirate (ghost). “And they can even be able to usurp the phone number of this bank,” warns the office, “so the number on your identifier or your mobile phone could show that it is the bank.”

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This usurpal threat develops quickly and may have already reached the PIC-2025, with an informed engineer in piracy almost taken by an attack of Google’s support numbers, which he described as “the attack on the most sophisticated phishing that I have ever seen. “It should serve as a clear warning that you cannot believe what you see and that you need to stick to the basic advice.

And on this note, there is a common theme. Google has confirmed that it will not proactively call users to solve technical problems, according to this last AI attack; And in the recent attack of Pirates Pirates Phantom in the highest profile, the bank involved told its account holders to “remember that the Bank of America will never contact you to ask to move money to protect yourself from fraud ”.

Microsoft has just revealed a new update for Windows users who uses its own AI to hit this threat head on, intercepting such “Scareware” attacks targeting PCs with fraodulent support calls. “The FBI reports that the victims lose more than a billion dollars a year for technological support and related scams,” warned Microsoft in his position, binding the office of the office on how to stay safe.

The FBI warning could not be clearer: “Legitimate customers, security or technology companies will not get unstalled contacts with individuals.” There is no exception. None.

With ironic irony, even the police are not immune to the entrance involved in such scams. If you needed a perfect illustration as to the proximity of the brand that these scams have become now, seek no further than us, warning that its “employees continue to receive many calls from people concerned with calls Unstructedly stretched by crooks pretending to be an American border patrol agents and customs agents and the protection of American borders. »»

And we have just seen the echoes, with convictions for fraudsters whose scam calls claims to be police, encouraging the elderly victims to separate from money and jewelry as part of an investigation. This scam worked by asking the victims to recall by composing the 999 – the British equivalent of 911. But the fraudsters would remain at stake, which would not be disconnected, and would then take care of the urgency.

As with banks and technological support, CBP says that it “will not call you unexpected with promises of money or threats. Does the appellant ask you to pay fees or share your social security, your credit card or your bank account numbers by phone? To hang up. It is a scam. The agency also warns “do not trust the caller identifier; Scholars can make their phone numbers real even if they are not. »»

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“Never recall the phone numbers in the caller identifier or left in voice messages, emails or messages on social networks,” advises CBP. “Instead, enter the name of the agency in a search bar and click on its web page to find contact information.”

And a wave of new warnings according to which the crooks claim to be police when they call the target victims surfaced this weekend. It is more difficult to be this binary with the police, since an unsolicited call is more likely. But that will never request money or goods and you still have the right to recall from a telephone number accessible to the public for the agency or the police service in question. Exactly as the CBP suggested.

Compared to Fox Los Angeles“The deputies of the county of Ventura warn residents of a new scam involving a telephone call from a false assistant who rose several people over thousands of dollars. The scam consists in receiving a telephone call from a fictitious “locker sergeant with the Sheriff’s Bureau of Ventura, officials said. This person even gives people a false badge number. “Sergeant Locker tells the victims that they have missed an assignment of Grand Jury, and they now owe $ 1,500 in legal costs because of this. From there, the crook convinces the victims that they must buy bitcoin, using automatic Bitcoin ticket distributors and transfer $ 1,500 to a cryptocurrency portfolio, deputies said. Once they received the money, the crooked rape the cryptographic wallet and disconnects the phone number with which they called their victims. »»

While on the other side of the country, “the Baltimore county police service warns the public of a scam by telephone in which the appellant pretended to be for the police. The authorities claim that these appellants use an urgent language to put pressure on the resident to make an immediate payment via metallic transfers or other means. By fraudulent means, the name of a legitimate police service may appear on the appellant’s identifier. The criminal can also use the name of an officer legitimately used with BCOPD. If you receive such a call, hang up immediately and report it.

In the meantime, ABC Report that “if you receive calls or sms from someone who claims to work for the police, think twice. Things may not be all they seem. The Manatee County Sheriff Bureau is now a new warning on a scam they have seen before. It is a fairly simple trick: someone, claiming to work with the government, will contact a victim and will ask for money by phone. The supposed reason may vary from speeding tickets at the end of a mandate for your arrest. Scholars will often try to put pressure on the victims, creating a feeling of urgency. »»

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Technological platforms now respond to this threat. Google has introduced the defense of calls to the latest version of Android, which calls can be listened to using an AI on the outskirts and report a probable scam, it also prevented users from expressed in deactivation of Android protection during calls to prevent malicious applications from being installed installed.

Regardless of the email address or the phone number that contacts you. If it is not requested, if it is unexpectedly, if you have not explicitly stretched your hand, suppose it is a scam. Do not take the call – hang up. It’s not your bank, it’s not Microsoft, Google or Apple or someone else. It is a hardened and hardened crook and the more you talk to them, the more it is likely that you and your money will separate.

Take into account the FBI advice to all Times – it’s really as simple. But if you are a victim, here is what you need to do:

• “Run up the up -to -date virus digitization software to check the potentially malicious software installed by crooks. Remember to have your computer cleaned.
• Contact your financial institutions immediately. Take measures to protect your identity and accounts.
• Change all passwords if the crook had access to your device.
• Expect additional contact attempts. Schools often share information from the victim database.
• Keep all the documents, e-mails, faxes and newspapers of origin of all communications. “”