(Blind) Users Really Do Heed Aural Telephone Scam Warnings

TL;DR

This study evaluates the effectiveness of aural telephone scam warnings for both blind and sighted users, demonstrating that contextual warnings significantly improve scam detection and user response in naturalistic settings.

Contribution

The paper introduces and tests an accessible, aural scam warning system tailored for visually impaired users, enhancing scam detection beyond visual cues.

Findings

Contextual warnings increased scam detection among blind users.

Both blind and sighted users found contextual warnings effective.

Legally blind participants responded differently due to accessibility issues.

Abstract

This paper reports on a study exploring how two groups of individuals, legally blind (n=36) and sighted ones (n=36), react to aural telephone scam warnings in naturalistic settings. As spoofing a CallerID is trivial, communicating the context of an incoming call instead offers a better possibility to warn a receiver about a potential scam. Usually, such warnings are visual in nature and fail to cater to users with visual disabilities. To address this exclusion, we developed an aural variant of telephone scam warnings and tested them in three conditions: baseline (no warning), short warning, and contextual warning that preceded the scam's content. We tested the two most common scam scenarios: fraud (interest rate reduction) and identity theft (social security number) by cold-calling participants and recording their action, and debriefing and obtaining consent afterward. Only two participants "pressed one" as the scam demanded, both from the legally blind group that heard the contextual warning for the social security scenario. Upon close inspection, we learned that one of them did so because of accessibility issues with their screen reader and the other did so intentionally because the warning convinced them to waste the scammer's time, so they don't scam vulnerable people. Both the legally blind and the sighted participants found the contextual warnings as powerful usable security cues that, together with STIR/SHAKEN indicators like "Scam Likely", would provide robust protection against any type of scam. We also discussed the potential privacy implications of the contextual warnings and collected recommendations for usably accessible implementation.