Phone Scammers Use ‘Mind-Control Tactics’ to Deceive Victims

Telephone scammers duped Americans out of $29.8 billion last year. Since the pandemic began, they have become increasingly sophisticated, with a large number of their victims professionals aged 18-44, rather than supposedly vulnerable seniors, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

While some are robocalls that are clearly fake are easy to hang up and walk away from — like calls about an expired car warranty, unpaid student loans, or grandchildren in jail — a startling amount of scams are becoming more difficult to discern.

Experts say these criminals are increasingly becoming more “sophisticated” and use “mind-control tactics” to keep you on the phone longer and do as you’re told.

Recently, elaborate phone scammers claiming to be police officers have successfully targeted therapists and social workers in the San Francisco area and beyond, using real names from members of local precincts, to get the clinicians to pay fictitious legal fees through prepaid Visa cards.

Experts say this illustrates that everyone is vulnerable to psychological manipulation.

“Grifters are amateur psychologists,” said Alan Castel, a UCLA psychology professor who studied scams for his book “Better With Age: The Psychology of Successful Aging.”

“They understand that people respond to social influences, especially to authority,” Castel told the San Francisco Chronicle.

“They know people don’t use all their cognitive resources when they’re stressed,” he continued.

“They know that if you can rush people, scare people, they’ll become hyper-focused on trying to solve a problem. Fraudsters create a powerful situation that induces compliance.”

Many people have become victims through their compliance. In 2019, 43 million Americans lost $10.5 billion to phone scams, according to the same poll for that year.

And despite the perception that seniors are more likely to be victimized, it’s actually people ages 18 to 44 who are successfully scammed most often, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Experts also theorize that the pandemic-related lockdown, isolation, and virus anxiety has made people more vulnerable to “smooth-talking strangers,” the San Francisco Chronicle explains.

The Scam Against Therapists

 When Jaime Bardacke, 45, got a voicemail on her cell phone on Father’s Day, she had no idea it would spark a 6.5 hour ordeal, taking her around San Francisco and the Peninsula, costing her thousands of dollars.

 Calling the number back, Bardacke heard the voice of a man who identified himself as Lt. Timothy Reid calling from the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office about a legal matter. Bardacke wasn’t surprised, as she deals with legal issues involving her clients regularly, she told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Quickly, the man on the other end of the line asked her why she had failed to testify at a trial after having signed a subpoena saying that she would appear. Now, the man told her there was an order to arrest her for contempt of court.

“I was immediately concerned because I have been subpoenaed as an expert witness as part of my work,” Bardacke told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I knew this could affect the status of my license. My whole livelihood depends on that.”

After saying she never received a subpoena, the man said she could come down to the sheriff’s office in Redwood City to sign her name to prove that her signature had been forged.

When Bardacke asked to learn more about the case she was subpoenaed on, the caller said it was a federal case and a judge had issued a gag order so he couldn’t say more about it.

The man on the other end was also adamant that if she tried to interact with any police officer before the money was paid, she could be taken into custody and held for at least 72 hours before the warrant could be lifted — further isolating her from the truth of the situation.

“He had a whole rhythm of working me up into a state where I couldn’t think straight,” she told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Before the ordeal was over, Bardacke bought $6,000 worth of cards from different stores and dropped them off at designated locations.

In sharing her story, Bardacke said she wants to help prevent this from happening to other people.

“If even a few people can be saved from this, it’s worth it,” she said.

“The only way these people get away with this is because it’s not talked about, because of the shame involved. It’s a crime where information is the only thing that will save you.”

Additional Reading: Lack of Cyber Security Workers Leaves State Governments Vulnerable

 Andrea Cipriano is a TCR staff writer