You probably have never heard of Serdar Danis or Aaron Foss, but thanks to them, the end to illegal telemarketing robocalls may be in sight.  Read on.

If you are not already a victim and have never heard of a robocall, it is a pre-recorded telemarketing call placed by computers that dial telephone numbers in sequences – home phones, faxes, businesses and cell phones at blinding speeds.  Anyone who knows about computers understands how many calls can be placed per second.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) receives tens of thousands of complaints about these invasive calls, and the number has continued to rise exponentially.

Telemarketers are prohibited by law from calling consumers’ landlines if their numbers are in the Do Not Call Registry.  They also are forbidden to call cell phones.  This has not stopped them, as millions of consumers know.

One of the most commonly-asked consumer questions is “Why can’t they be blocked?”

The FTC has been moving aggressively to address that problem, shutting down scammers who ignore the law, criminals who brought “Rachel from cardholder services” into our lives and offer everything from credit fixes and advanced fee loan scams to local home services and even “academic opportunities.”

Unfortunately, the illegal telemarketers are one technological step ahead of everyone else.  However, American ingenuity may soon be able to help put an end to this headache.

The FTC offered a $50,000 prize to anyone who could come up with a novel way to stop these computerized dialers from reaching our phones.

And that’s where Serdar Danis and Aaron Foss come into the picture.

They will each receive $25,000 for their proposals to intercept and filter out these prerecorded calls.  The FTC posted the details on its website.

The fight has only begun, but this is welcome news to those of us who have been receiving calls with greetings that increasingly sound like you are connected to a live person.

For now, the best advice is to ignore calls from telephone numbers that you do not recognize or which do not show a caller ID.  If you are offered the option to “press 1” to speak with a live representative or to be removed from the calling list – don’t.  It only confirms to the robocalling computer that it has found a working number.

It is not a perfect solution nor an elegant one, but thanks to the FTC, Serdar Danis and Aaron Foss, we may soon get some peace from scammers who misuse technology to try and trick us into divulging personal information or cheat us out of our money.

For more consumer news and tips call Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona at (520)888-5353.

Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona is warning of a new phishing scam is making the rounds disguised as a consumer complaint notification from the FTC. If you receive it, just hit “delete.”

How the Scam Works:

You get an email that appears to be from the FTC with the subject line: “Notification of a Consumer Complaint.” (Sample email below) The email states that a complaint has been filed against your business, and you need to review and respond to the allegations.

The email provides a link for you to supposedly click through to the FTC website and download a PDF of the complaint details. The link really goes to a third party website, and the file you download is actually malware that scans your computer for personal and banking information.

Like most scams, this one is not set in stone. Several variations already exist, and scammers will continue to alter the emails as news of the con spreads. Watch out for changes in the subject line and the complaint details. Older reports of the scam involve emails that urge recipients to call a fake FTC help hotline or complete an online complaint form.

How to Spot a Phishing Email: 

• Don’t believe what you see. Scammers can make links look like they lead to legitimate websites (as in the example above) and emails appear to come from a different sender. It’s also easy to steal the colors, logos and email header of the FTC or any other established organization.
• Be wary of unexpected emails that contain links or attachments. Do not click on the links or open the files.
• Check a link’s true destination by hovering over it and looking in the lower right hand corner of your browser.
• Try Googling the organization or the contents of the email. If the email is a scam, this is likely to reveal an alert or bring you to the organization’s real website, where they may have posted further information.

For More Information

Check out the Federal Trade Commission’s official warning about the scam.

To find out more about scams, check out BBB Scam Stopper.

As a new generation increasingly uses the internet, Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona warns parents that mobile applications for smart phones and tablets are siphoning children’s data and sharing it. In most cases, the applications’ developers do not disclose whether data is being collected, with whom it is being shared nor how it is used.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a study called “Mobile Apps for Kids – Disclosures Still Not Making the Grade,” nearly 60 percent of children’s applications available from the iTunes store and Google Play that were examined by researchers “…failed to provide any information about the data collected through the app, let alone the type of data collected, the purpose of the collection and who would obtain access to the data.”

“As parents, we try to do everything in our power to monitor our children and keep them safe,” said Kim States, BBB president. “So it is very disconcerting when a study like this comes out and shows that our children’s information is out in cyber space and may be accessible by others with ill intentions.”

BBB offers the following tips for keeping children’s information safe prior to using an app:

• Check into the app before downloading. It is important to research and look into the details, such as the developer information and privacy policies.
• Be aware of the service of the app. Many free apps are used for advertising purposes and as a result can lead to different, unexpected pages without your permission. Make sure that the app does not bring your child to an unwanted page.
• Monitor how much your children share. Look into the amount of information that your children are sharing over the app and make sure that you are comfortable with that information being released to cyber space.
• Check out a company with the BBB. Prior to purchasing an app, always check reviews on www.bbb.org

For more advice on finding businesses you can trust, visit www.bbb.org