“Scammers are always looking for more effective words. Most Americans have learned to be on their guard, and they're likely to suspect an overly aggressive phishing phone call from a fake credit card customer service agent speaking accented English,” writes Martin Kaste in their recent NPR article entitled “The Language Of Cybercrime.”
According to the article, “One solution is digitized voices. There's still a live person on the other end of the call, but he isn't talking. Instead, he's playing audio from a computer, picking prerecorded phrases from a menu as the conversation progresses.”
“It sounds convincing until you ask a question he doesn't have a canned response for. The resulting hesitations undermine the natural feel of the conversation,” Kaste explains.
The NPR piece continues, “Online scammers use a similar technique. When texting or emailing their marks, they often work from ‘scripts’ of prewritten American English boilerplate. The most effective conversational gambits are saved and distributed to other scammers in the network, and they cut-and-paste the scripts into their grifts at crucial moments.”
“Ronnie Tokazowski, a senior threat researcher with email security company Agari, has been watching scammers building their scripts,” Kaste shares.
"Some of the scripts will say, 'If your victim doubts you here, say this.' We've seen upwards of 28 levels of engagement before your scammer has to work to come up with something [to say]," Tokazowski says in the NPR article.
We’re not experts in this field.
But 28 levels of engagement seem sophisticated – or least the threat is evolving that way.
That’s a concern to us.
Why?
Your abilities for countering the crime need to adapt rapidly.
It doesn’t matter what the language of the crime is.
You need to be proactive in defending your property against it.
That should resonate.
Agree?
You’re probably wondering:
What is Proactive Operations, and how will it help me be ready for crime?
We’re glad you asked.
Proactive Operations is a methodology by which property operations utilize strategy, infrastructure, and technology to achieve maximum performance.
With Proactive Operations, your organization can manage everything that occurs to ensure a safe and memorable experience for your customers.
Unlike reactive operations, Proactive Operations provides you a disciplined framework for streamlining processes, resources, personnel, information, and communication.
By continuously examining, improving, and optimizing your operation, you program your ability to manage everything 24/7 365 – proactively.
See, employing the Proactive Operations methodology allows you to cement a foundation, and build and grow a sophisticated operation.
Your operation will not only be ready for crime, but it will also be able to counter it, you guessed it, proactively.
And what’s the result?
A safe place for the people you’re responsible for protecting.
That’s a result we know you strive for every day.
Ready to learn ‘The Language of Proactive Operations?’ You need to read our comprehensive resource here.
Scammers are always looking for effective ways to fake out their marks. Most people have learned to be on their guard. But the language of crime is evolving.
That’s why you need to take an approach that puts you ahead of the evolution. You need a framework that helps you adapt every day. You need to learn the language Proactive Operations – and how to execute it.