Spy vs Scammer: How a popular intelligence Tactic can save you from online fraudsters

Receiving a call, text, email or social media message from a friend or a loved one who is in trouble, danger or need of help can be a frightening and anxiety-instilling experience. 

This is exactly what the modern fraudster is betting on. When you are in a state of fearfulness, you tend to react first—and evaluate your options later. 

Online scammers who are looking to bilk you out of your money know this. And it’s one of the reasons the “Emergency Scam” is so effective. 

The Emergency Scam comes in various iterations, but essentially works like this:

1. You are contacted by someone who is posing as a friend, family member or loved one. 
2. The individual posing as someone you know is in a dire situation. Examples include being in a car accident, they’ve been arrested or detained, their property or ID have been lost or stolen, or they’ve had some form of difficulty during oversees travel. 
3. To get out of the jam, they require an e-transfer of money, cryptocurrency, gift cards or some other form of compensation to pay for a repair, fine, bail, to replace or fix the property, or to hire a lawyer. 
4. The situation requires a quick turnaround time—usually within an hour or two. 

A lesson from James Bond himself

In the Intelligence Community, anxiety-inducing situations come with the territory—and similarly to the Emergency Scam, an intelligence professional can be called upon to act quickly in a seemingly dire situation. 

To help illustrate this, I’m going to pull from a scene in “Goldeneye,” the 1997 James Bond movie starring Pierce Brosnan …

In the scene, James has travelled to Russia to meet with a CIA officer, Jack Wade. However, never having met Wade before, James walks up to who he believes is Wade—and utters the phrase “In London, April’s spring month.” Unfortunately Wade, who appears to be in a foul mood, responds “Oh yeah, and what are you, the weatherman?” and continues saying “For crying out loud, another stiff-ass Brit with your secret codes and your passwords. One of these days, you guys are gonna learn just to drop it.” 

James then follows Wade to his car and—being the consummate intelligence professional he is— forces Wade to finish the rest of the pass phrase. At gun point, of course. 

But the verification doesn’t end there. The famous MI6 agent then forces Wade to drop trou and reveal a tattoo of a rose with the name of Wade’s third wife “MUFFY” on his left hip. Having seen the rose, James is finally satisfied that Wade is who he says he is.

Verbal and visual paroles

Although the above movie scene may have been done for comedic effect, it is based in real-world espionage techniques. 

The Intelligence Community regularly uses verbal and visual paroles to establish and verify that people meeting up are who they say they are. 

• Verbal Parole: A specific word or phrase used in conversation, text, email, or social media to verify that the person sending or receiving the message is who they say they are.

• Visual Parole: A character, image, emoji, or combination of alphanumeric characters used to verify that the individual sending the email, text or social media message is who they say they are.

In the case of the Goldeneye scene, Bond, who was unsatisfied with the verbal parole provided by Wade, verified who he was using a visual parole—the Muffy tattoo.

As a Security and Intelligence profession for over two decades, I have been required to conduct clandestine meetings with individuals whom I had never met—putting myself and the mission at risk if I didn’t have a way to verify who I was dealing with. If an introduction couldn’t be facilitated before the meeting (e.g., if a situation is immediate), both I and the source needed to use these types of paroles to confirm the truth about our identities.

Catching spies is a hard feat, but putting them in a situation where immediacy is required helps set the trap.  This is exactly what the fraudster wants to do with the victim of an Emergency Scam. Catch them off-guard and create an immediacy situation. 

Similar to the Emergency Scam, the source can’t go to anyone else for help or risk exposing their relationship with an intelligence agency. 

Artificial Intelligence – The scammers new bestie

So, what does all of this have to do with protecting yourself from Emergency Scams? 

Well, with the advent of Artificial Intelligence, it’s becoming more difficult to differentiate between human voices—those of your friends, family members and colleagues—and voices that are AI-generated.

The number of social media sites used to upload videos and other information about individuals is increasing daily. Additionally, people are using and uploading their voice, images, writing style and life details more and more freely. This results in ever more information that can be manipulated by imposters to con unsuspecting people (like you, and those you care about). 

AI-generated tools are easily accessible and inexpensive. This is one of the main reasons that Canadians have been taken for $7.8 million in 2022 by Emergency Scams and their variants. 

Using pre-arranged verbal and visual paroles could be the quickest way to determine if the person contacting you is truly a loved one in trouble, or just another scammer with an elaborate scheme.

For example, some scams involve receiving a text from an unknown number, where the person states they are someone you know—and they say they have lost access to their phone so they’re using a friend’s or stranger’s phone to contact you. This would be where you could use a pre-determined emoji, phrase, or set of characters to verify if the person on the other end is who they say they are. 

Spoofing is another technique used by fraudsters to convince potential victims that they are being contacted by a friend, family member or someone they know.  This is another reason to be skeptical of anyone you think you know asking for financial assistance because of a dire circumstance—and another situation where paroles could come in handy.

Don’t Rely—Verify!

Even with paroles, you need to be extra-cautious with what you’re asking the person to verify. That’s because the massive amount of information that people put on the internet could easily be used against you. Asking questions about other relatives’ names, birthdates, vacation spots or pets could already be in the hands of the scammer. 

This is why a pre-determined word, phrase or image is so important. 

Additionally, Emergency Scams work so well because of the emotional toll it has on the victim. The imposter will play on your fear and state that they can’t remember the answer, or don’t have time for questions. They may also hand the phone over to another fraudster who acts as person of authority to pressure you to comply. 

Again, a simple code word or emoji that was previously discussed takes no time to send or say—and could be all the difference between knowing you are helping someone you know or being scammed. 

Just like Bond didn’t take any chances with his mission, don’t take any chances with your money or wellbeing. Set up a pre-determined set of protocols with your loved ones to make verification quick, simple and safe.