Asked Siri to call your bank? A scam could cost thousands

A cybersecurity report details a growing threat involving voice assistant queries after an 82-year-old user asked Apple's Siri to contact American Express, resulting in a connection to a fraudulent customer-service phone number. The incident quickly escalated into a sophisticated refund fraud scheme involving the victim's Bank of America account, where scammers attempted to coerce her into transferring $100,000 under the guise of returning an erroneous overpayment. The victim detected the anomaly and froze her account before suffering financial losses. The Better Business Bureau and cybersecurity experts have highlighted systemic risks in how voice assistants and search engines index business listings, allowing fraudulent contact numbers to appear in automated results. The incident emphasizes critical operational and reputational challenges for Apple's Siri platform and major financial institutions like American Express and Bank of America, as scammers increasingly exploit trust in digital voice interfaces to bypass traditional authentication safeguards and target consumer assets.