GREAT FALLS — November 17-23 is International Fraud Awareness Week, which serves as an important reminder to be aware of potential scams sent your way.

“In 2023, $12.5 billion was lost to fraud,” explained Blair Stapleton, the Public Outreach Coordinator for the Commissioner of Securities and Insurance, “And that’s nearly quadrupled since 2019.”

Stapleton explains a scam as somebody taking advantage of somebody else, trying to get their money and decreasing their overall wellbeing. Scammers use the threat of urgency and scare tactics to make it harder for victims to stop and logically assess the situation at hand.

“This is really kind of what scammers are able to do to blind their victims into,” Stapleton said, “Logic sort of goes out the door and fear comes in.”

Jacob Griffith is with the Office of Consumer Protection. He says that with generative artificial intelligence, scammers are getting even better.

“A lot of times scammers can pick up on social media videos, and then be able to get an entire language model of a grandchild,” Griffith said, “[Then] call the grandparent, say, ‘I’m in jail, I need bail money.’”

The key to staying safe is looking out for common red flags, such as unusual payment methods and out-of-the-blue urgent requests. It’s also suggested you have a family “passcode” to keep scammers from successfully mimicking family members.

If you suspect a scammer is reaching out, the best thing to do is ignore them and report it. Do not respond.

“Some scammers track how responsive people are,” Stapleton said.

If you are scammed, contact the Office of Consumer Protection and your financial institutions, letting them know what happened and asking them to freeze your credit.

“That really helps stop any accounts getting open,” Griffith said, “And just working with those institutions to kind of start to recover the pieces.”

The Commissioner of Securities and Insurance is hosting webinars this week with the FBI, AARP, and SMP if you want Montana-specific examples to learn more about staying safe from cyber-attacks.

You can register by clicking here for Wednesday, November 20^th at 5:30pm or here for Thursday, November 21^st at 1pm.

To watch the full interview click HERE.