New Macquarie University research into phone scams has identified the scripts and emotions that drive most calls.
A team of researchers from Macquarie University’s Cyber Security Hub has analysed the content of more than 100 hours of scam phone calls to identify clear call ‘stages’ and pinpoint the social engineering techniques scammers use on their victims.
Con job: During 2021 alone, phone scammers stole more than $100 million from Australians.
The team, headed by Professor Dali Kaafar, used machine-learning techniques and natural language processing to uncover scam ‘scripts’ that use various topics and emotions.
These findings will help develop better ways to detect and prevent scams which account for the human element which is critical to scammers’ success.
“Most people have either been targeted themselves, or know someone who has fallen victim to scammers, because it’s so common, so relentless and in many ways, so clever,” says Kaafar.
Ours is one of the only studies to unpack the content of scam calls and the psychological tricks used by attackers in depth.
“I have even known a post-doctoral researcher, with years of experience in cybersecurity, who was tricked out of $8000 in a phone scam,” he adds.
During 2021 alone, phone scammers stole more than $100 million from Australians via more than 144,000 incidents reported to the ACCC’s ‘Scamwatch’ service – and that’s just the tip of a fast-growing iceberg, according to Kaafar.
“Advances in…
