When you quickly do a Google search to get a restaurant or your favorite retailer’s number, you’ll want to watch out: the number you may see may be a scam.
That’s because savvy scammers can infiltrate search results to become the top one you see and fool you into thinking their result ― in this case, their phone number ― is legitimate.
“Scammers manipulate Google’s ranking system to push their fake websites to the top of the search results,” said Truman Kain, an offensive security researcher at Huntress. “This is called SEO [search engine optimization] poisoning, and is done by filling web pages with keywords and backlinks in order to trick Google’s algorithm into thinking the site is relevant and can be trusted.”
These bad actors are capitalizing upon your customer service emergencies. Lost an Amazon package? Need to call your airline because your flight got canceled? A scammer is banking on the idea that you will not take the time to verify that the number listed on a search engine’s page is the same as the one on a business’ website.
Karin Zilberstein, vice president of product at cybersecurity firm Guardio, said “Fraudulent numbers can appear at the top ― especially for urgent searches like ‘bank customer support’ or ‘airline help desk.’”
Once you are on a call with this business impersonator, you could get hoodwinked into sharing more than you should. In a 2020 alert about this issue, the Federal Trade Commission warned that fake customer service agents frequently “offer to ‘resolve’ the problem you may have — if you wire money to them or send gift cards. They might also ask for your personal information, or to get remote access to your computer.”
No real company will ever force you to resolve a billing issue by a gift card. To avoid being fooled, you need to do a little homework before you dial:
How To Double-Check That You Are Actually Using A Real Business’ Phone Number
To keep your identity and your money safe, do not automatically trust the sponsored or top search results you see:
If you are calling about a product, check the physical packaging.
One of the best ways to verify that the customer service number is to go directly to the source. If you are calling customer service about a product you received, check if you received contact information in the packaging you got.
As the FTC puts it, “Manual or other print material for your product is a good source of real customer service information.”
Go directly to the company’s website.
Double-check that the phone number you are planning to call matches what is listed on a company’s website.
“If the website displaying the phone number is not using an official company domain or URL, that’s a big red flag,” Kain said.
Keep in mind that scammers can dupe company websites, too: “Look for misspellings or dashes in the URL, and check it against the website listed in the company’s official social media profile bios,” Kain added.
Always be suspicious of urgent language.
Scammers win when they get you to stop thinking with your head and start acting out of fear. Too often, we call customer service numbers as a last resort for resolving issues. Zilberstein said to be suspicious of pushy or urgent language from customer service agents, because “scammers often demand immediate action.”
If you do get pushed to take immediate action with your money, use that as your cue to hang up and double-check the number you see.
All of this fact-checking takes more than a few clicks, but the alternative is getting scammed into giving up your identity or banking information to a shady actor. Take the extra time.