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Local Tech Expert Warns Hackers are Exploiting Virtual Assistants

4 years 7 months 1 week ago Tuesday, August 20 2019 Aug 20, 2019 August 20, 2019 5:25 PM August 20, 2019 in News - Local

WESLACO – A warning for smartphone users.

Be careful what you're asking Siri or Google to look up.

Hackers are using your "voice search" to make you a victim.

You need the directions or the number to a business so you pull out your smart phone and ask Siri, Alexa, or Google, the problem is, they may be sending you to a hacker.

Hackers are now exploiting virtual assistants to get information and money that doesn't belong to them.

Smart device assistance like Siri and Alexa pull numbers and addresses from search engines such as Google.

"Companies such as Google, or other large search engines work on revenue so you're going to get the ones that are willing to pay them more so they get the best hits," said Orlando Gomez, an information security analyst at South Texas College.

Gomez says sometimes those numbers are wrong.

"You don't always know who that person is so it's very easy to register a website, it's very easy to register multiple phone numbers,  so what we commonly see here is websites being tailored to look like our organization," he explained.

Dolores Salinas, president of the Better Business Bureau, says you should also beware of fake ads or phony websites when using your smartphone's personal assistant.

Watch the video for the full report.

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