How Scammers Are Targeting Your Clients

Scammers are working overtime to target your clients.

Reports show that insurance (#1) and financial services (#5) rank in the top five of most spoofed entities. That means fraudsters could be calling your clients posing as a company representative to steal funds and/or personal information.

A recent survey found that 52% of people say they've received a scam call where the scammer requested insurance information to illegally obtain their personal data.

This survey also found that nearly 60% of respondents reported losing at least $250 due to a health care scam, with some losing $2,000 or more to scammers.

Fraudsters call hundreds of people each day, dialing for dollars and information.

Some of the most common scam tactics targeting insurance and financial services clients today include:

Saying that the call recipient was named as the beneficiary on the life insurance policy of someone who recently passed away, but an outstanding premium balance is preventing them from issuing payment.
Informing the call recipient that there's a problem with an existing insurance policy and asking for Social Security number or a payment to keep the policy in force.
Posing as an insurance agent or representative from the insurance company and requesting prepayment for future medical treatment, services or devices.
Offering new financial services products, free products or a 'get rich quick' opportunity and pressuring the call recipient for personal and account information.

Final expense insurance scam calls are a prime example of this, targeting seniors preparing their wills and funeral arrangements.

While clients want to receive calls from their insurance agent and financial advisor, they are wary of answering calls from unknown numbers and falling victim to scams like these.

These are legitimate concerns at a time when scam calls plague clients daily.

Recent data estimates that U.S. mobile subscribers received over 100 billion scam calls during the first six months of 2022.

Scammers may be targeting clients, but new technology can help protect clients and your company's reputation by reducing the ability for bad actors to connect with them and spoof your company.

Branded communication technology lets businesses brand their outbound calls. With this technology, insurance and financial services providers can identify themselves on mobile devices as legitimate callers by displaying logos, images and reasons for the calls on the recipients' devices at the time of the call and in the native call log.

The good news for insurance and financial businesses is that branded communication instills consumer trust in the phone call experience and helps clients regain confidence that they are answering a legitimate call from their agent or advisor.

The bad news for scammers is that branded communication is a catalyst for preventing fraud activity.

Nysia George is director of data science at First Orion, a company that fights scam calls.