EDITORIAL: Here's one way to fight fraud

They have no soul, no conscience, only greed.

And they’ve got you in their crosshairs.

We’re talking about one of the great plagues on modern society, the phone scammers who will ruin your life if you give them even the smallest opening.

According to a recent article on the business news site CNBC.com, an estimated 70 million Americans have lost a total of $40 billion to phone scammers in the past year.

Were you one of them?

Will you be?

The CNBC.com article — https://cnb.cx/3hec9mb — includes a 10-minute video about the type of scams people are falling for, including fraudulent text and email messages. In short, the list of potential disasters is virtually inexhaustible. And while vulnerable seniors might be a top target, they are far from the only target. Everyone with a phone is a potential victim.

So what do you do? Well, it’s easy to say that you simply shouldn’t answer your phone unless you recognize the caller, and that you should never click on any link in a text message. The article video provides a number of excellent recommendations, but none is infallible; human nature includes a dangerous mix of curiosity and momentary lapses of judgment.

To help you minimize your risk of falling prey to these fiends, check out a phone app called Truecaller. It’s free, easy to download and has a 4.5 star rating among 251,000 iPhone users.

Truecaller will help identify who’s calling you so you can decide whether or not to pick it up. It will help you wade through the waves of calls that range from annoying to malicious.

With rampant inflation and so many other financial challenges these days, few of us can afford to be victimized by fraud perpetrators. Please use common sense and a good app to safeguard your bank account and your peace of mind.