Ask HN: Is Google AI Overview giving you scam phone numbers?
4 CreepGin 3 9/3/2025, 10:23:14 PM
Today my wife was trying to cancel a GEICO policy. She searched for "geico home insurance phone number". On top of the results page in the AI Overview section, it gave out a phone number (1-800-442-9393) in the first sentence. So my wife called. The guy on the other end didn't ask anything insurance-related and just went straight for home address and credit card information. She got scared and hang up shortly after.
Later on, we checked the number and couldn't find any reference to it online. And what's even weirder was that when we tried to search for the same query again, it gave a completely different number (still not affiliated with GEICO).
Anyone has similar experience?
> Rivlin told me that the bogus customer service number and the impostor representative were believable.
My wife said it was the persistent CC# inquiry combined with the heavy Indian accent that put her on alert.
the assumption the e-mail is from a certain sender, just because they say so, has to be deleted from the workstream.
anytime there is a need or urgency insinuated, be critical.
cut out the middleman contact using info from what you know is a real source, such as your agents card, or policy documents. never use info from the e-mail
dont ever believe e-mail, dont ever click on anything even if you think its real, go to the actual page through your browser, or call your agent directly