Billings business says it was unaware of AI voice scam

BILLINGS — A local Billings business is speaking out after it was unknowingly caught up in an AI voice scam, and the owners said they are often the targets of scams themselves.

Last week, MTN reported about a Billings mom who was scammed in early October through an AI voice scam, believing her daughter was being held hostage. She was instructed by the scammers to wire several hundred dollars at a local business to a bank in Mexico to get her daughter out of danger.

The store that the mom, Juel Graham, visited to transfer money was a local Mexican grocery store, Colima de Mis Amores, located at 2212 Grant Road. The store and bakery sells Mexican items such as food, snacks, sweets, clothing and jewelry. It also has an international money transfer, called Maxi.

Store owner Rubi Murillo remembers Graham coming in for the transfer.

“For me, she act normal because she was calm. I did her transaction. I didn’t ask her a lot of questions when you send less than $500, we don’t have to do that kind of questions,” said Rubi.

Their computer system will trigger a warning past $500 and will ask questions like where the money is coming from, the relationship to the person, and what the money is for. Since the amount was only a few hundred dollars, the transfer seemed like a typical transaction for Murillo.

However, a day later, she and her husband, Miguel Murillo, were shown the Facebook post Graham had made warning others about the scam. They were surprised upon learning that their business was named.

“I read everything and for me, I was in shock,” said Rubi.

The Murillos filed their own police report soon after. They learned that the scammers had likely searched for money transfers in Billings online and found the store, as Colima is one of the first to pop up on Google.

They expressed remorse for Graham and said that they took the matter seriously. In fact, scams are something they are familiar with, as they are often the targets themselves.

“Three, four, sometimes five [calls], so depends. You get them from not paying the electrical bill all the way to accounting, printing menus, stuff like that,” said Miguel.

The scam calls to the store are usually in Spanish and will say that they owe money for their electricity, or even attempt to have them download computer software that is needed to “upgrade” the Maxi. It is something they, and many other businesses, deal with constantly.

“Scamming is a multilingual global industry that is targeting anybody who’s willing to play,” said Dale Dixon, the chief innovation officer for Better Business Bureau’s Great West Pacific Region. “Just because they can speak fluent Spanish does not mean that they’re calling out of Mexico or another Central or South American country. It means that they are using technology. There’s a good chance that that is an artificial intelligence generated voice that has been taught how to speak that language so that they can target the person that they’re contacting.”

Scams that target businesses are all too common. According to the Better Business Bureau, the top three scams that businesses face are worthless problem-solving services, bank or credit card company impersonators, and fake invoice bills. In 2023, the median dollar loss by businesses through scams is $523.  

“The scam artists know that somebody is most likely going to answer a phone. They know that there’s probably an employee who is responding. That employee wants to do the best job, so the scam artist uses that psychology in order to steal money and steal information from a business,” said Dixon.

Scammers will often pose as the company’s owner or CEO and ask employees to help them with a favor, usually to send money for them to “clients” or as a gift.

There are ways that businesses can stay alert about potential scams. Dixon said as a blanket rule, employees should never give any confidential business information over the phone and that owners should communicate to their staff that they will never ask for funds over the phone.

“If you do get a request like that, it’s really important that you independently verify where that message is coming from,” said Dixon. “Don’t even engage. Teach employees how to just cut the conversation short the moment they suspect that it’s not a real customer.”

Dixon also said it is never a good idea to give out the name of managers or owners.

“There’s those types of customer service conversations that can take place, but don’t just willingly give up information because somebody calls and asks for it on the phone like that,” said Dixon.

The Murillos practice these tips every day when scammers call and educate all employees about scam scenarios. They know that if a caller asks for the manager under the name that is not their own, that person is attempting to scam them.

“They’re using technology to scam people. That’s wrong. That’s the scary part,” said Miguel.

The Murillos were innocent bystanders in Graham’s case, but it’s put them under a negative spotlight that they hope to overcome.

“After this happened, I saw a lot of bad comments on Facebook because the people assumed that we work together with this person who called her,” said Rubi. “We really work hard to where we are, so I feel sad.”

They want the community to know that they would never want something like this to happen and will continue operating with caution.

“We’ve been living in Montana for so many years. We don’t want people to get that idea about us. We’re not like that and we just want to welcome everybody to here. We’re sorry for what happened,” said Miguel. “We’re sorry for how people take advantage of other people, and there’s some problems we just need to be more alert and figure out a way so nothing happens to you.”