Phone scammers: Dialing for dollars

(SWEEPS FEED)- Stephanie King says her cellphone is ringing more often these days, when she’s at home and at work.

King says about five calls a week end up being from a scammer trying to pull a fast one.

“I’ve seen an increase, six months ago, I wasn’t getting any,” King said.

Experts say King is not the only one thieves are trying to dial for dollars.

“The problem is growing,” said Tom Hsieh with Truecaller.

A new survey found more scams are taking place on mobile phones and millennials are the most vulnerable.

Overall 27 million Americans lost approximately $7.4 billion in phone scams last year.

“On average, the U.S. consumer has lost about $300 per person. Some people have lost maybe a dozen dollars, some people have lost their life savings,” Hsieh said.

But why target cellphones? Experts say thieves know they’re gold to us- which in turn is gold to them.

“Cellphones, there an emotional tie to this phone, the fact that we use them for social media, we use them for shopping, for media activities, our whole life is through this phone.,” said Doug Fodeman with thedailyscam.com.

How do the crooks get away with it?

“When they do their fraudulent activities it’s typically overseas in the Caribbean, in India and Pakistan. So U.S. authorities have an extremely difficult time hunting them down,” Hsieh said.

So if you get a call from “tech support” or a call saying you owe the government big bucks…

“No one does that. So anyone who’s pressuring you in that way, they’re not legitimate, they’re a scammer,” Fodeman said.