The video effectively leveraged a terrifying personal anecdote to educate viewers about a prevalent scam, using clear red flags and actionable advice. The creator's relatable fear and the urgency of the situation likely drove engagement and shares.
Summary
The creator recounts a terrifying scam call where a scammer used a recording of her mother's voice to threaten her. She explains how the scam works, emphasizing the red flags like requests for payment apps and the use of voice cloning. The creator then shares crucial tips to avoid falling victim to such scams, including having a family code word, verifying calls through other means, avoiding answering unknown numbers, and disabling voice-based voicemail.
Structure
1Receiving a scary phone call
2The scammer's manipulation tactics
3Realizing it's a scam and verifying information
4Sharing tips to avoid scams
5Explaining how scammers get voices and why answering unknown numbers is dangerous
6
Original caption
New Scam ⚠️ Dayna you were spot on and I’m so glad you didn’t fall for it! Follow @cybersecuritygirl for more tips Thank you @dayynaa for sharing #scam #scamalert #news
More from @cybersecuritygirl
More breakout videos from this creator.
Final advice on voicemail and staying safe
Product placement
TikTok: it merely APPEARS. Removing it would not change what happens in the video.
Cash App: it ACTS. The scammer asks if the victim has Cash App to send money. Removing it would change what happens in the video.
PayPal: it ACTS. The scammer asks if the victim has PayPal to send money. Removing it would change what happens in the video.
Call to action
Make sure to send this video to anybody in your family, your friends, whatever
On-screen text
⚠️ attention ⚠️
I RECEIVED THE SCARIEST PHONE CALL OF MY LIFE.
PLEASE SEND THIS TO YOUR FAMILY
Transcript
I literally received the scariest phone call of my life yesterday morning and I wanted to bring some awareness so this does not happen to you or your family. Around 5:00 a.m. yesterday morning, I received a phone call from my mom, which is usually weird, but she's usually up at that time because she's a school teacher. And then she calls me again and so I start to like, hey, it's 5:00 a.m. Are you okay? What's going on? And then she calls me again and I was like, that is so weird for my mom. And I answer and it is my mom sobbing, hyperventilating and she's trying to talk, but she's just crying so much. My heart sinks. And I'm like, mom, what is going on? What is wrong? I literally thought my sister, my dad or my stepdad died. And then a man takes the phone and then cries for my mom moving into the background. And it sounds like just a normal man. He's like, hey, are you are you in a private place because your mom has something really hard she wants to tell you. And now I'm like, my gosh, is this a nurse? Is this a cop? I could still hear my mom in the background like sobbing. I was like, yeah, I'm literally alone. I'm in my room. The guy goes, okay, well when she tells you, like, please don't freak out, try to stay calm. And it's going to be hard to hear and I'm panicking. I'm like, okay, well can you give her the phone? Can she tell me now? I still hear her crying. Then he was just like, yeah, but when she tells you, don't freak out, don't try to contact anyone and don't try to contact the cops. And I'm like, did she do something? Did she kill someone? And if she can't tell me, can like, you tell me? He's like, I won't hurt her. I need you to listen to me, but if you don't listen to me, I will blow her brains out. Okay, so here's the urgency and here's the panic and this is what gets a lot of people. I'm like, and the second he said that, I remember seeing on TikTok somebody saying that there are crazy spam calls going out right now. Some people will use people as a hostage that you know in your life to get you to send money to them. It was like, remember that video? I go out, I see my mom's location. It says she's at the house. I text my stepdad right away. Are you with my mom right now? As I'm doing all that, the guy is like, do you have Cash App? And I'm like, no. Okay, two great things. One, she contacted another form of communication, aka she contacted her stepdad to ask about her mom. Then the second thing is red flag. They're asking for Cash App. Usually they ask for whatever it is, huge red flag. So congratulations on spotting it and I think you might have seen one of my videos about warning you because I feel like I make a lot of these. And he was like, do you have PayPal? And I'm like, no. He was like, why are you lying to me? Everything sounded so real, like nothing sounded fake. I was like, I'm not lying to you. He then hangs up the phone immediately. Obviously, I call my stepdad right away. I was like, is my mom with you? And he was like, yeah, she's fast asleep right now. I go, holy crap, I just got the scariest spam call my entire life. So I want to come on here and share that because if I didn't see that freaking TikTok, I would have fallen for this. Make sure to send this video to anybody in your family, your friends, whatever. Make sure you and your family have a code word set up so that this never happens. And also, just answering other spam calls because how they probably got my mom's voice is she probably answered a spam call recently and just by that, they could use that voice and make this whole scenario happen. So be careful because that was truly the scariest thing I've ever woken up to my. Thank you Dana for sharing this. This is so spot on. As a cybersecurity data privacy expert, I talk about these scams all the time, so I'm so glad you were able to probably to see one of my videos and let's go through your tips again. One, you should definitely have a family safe word. If you had a family safe word and your mom called you, you could have said, hey, let me talk to my mom and I'll ask her the family safe word, then you knew it was a scam. Two, I absolutely loved how you contacted your stepdad or aka you contacted your mom in another way outside of just her normal phone. Three, you are totally answering random phone calls, one of the reasons being that they could have used your voice to scam other people. But the other reason you are more likely to get sucked into a scam if you answer random phone calls. The less random phone calls you answer, the less you're going to get caught up in. And the last one that I mention, which I always talk about is turn your voicemail to default. Do not have your real voice on your voicemail because they could use that voice too to scam other people. If you're new to the cybersecurity go page, you know that I post daily simple tips to keep you safe. So stay safe out there and follow along if you want more content like this.
