Next time, be alarmed before making calls to a business with Siri or Google or Alexa — because there is a high chance to get scammed.
It’s typical when we don’t know the contact number of any business like airline or bank — some of us use voice assistants — by asking Google or Siri or Alexa to find and dial it for us.
But according to Better Business Bureau, auto-dialing businesses with smart devices or voice assistants may accidentally point you to a scam.
How does the scam work?
First, scammers create fake customer service numbers and ranked them to the top of search results by negative SEO or by ads. And when users search for the phone number of business via Google or Siri or Alexa, the algorithm automatically picks up this fake number and make a call to the scammer.
When the call is made, scammer act as the representative from that respective business insist users to initiate payment by wire transfer or prepaid debit card. They may also demand remote access to the computer or point users to an unfamiliar website — which may lead to data theft and malware or ransomware attack.
The scam may even fool the geniuses.
So, next time think twice before making calls with your voice assistants. Rather do a manual online search or go to the official website of that business to look for the contact number. Also, if the business representative asks you to process the payment, use credit cards instead of a wire transfer or debit card because it’s easier to dispute a credit card payment.
Just remember — next time don’t ask Siri or Google or Alexa to get you a business number.
