Every year many people lose a lot of money to phone scammers. Some even lose their whole life savings to phone scams. Scammers over the years have found out numerous ways to get you out of money over the phone. One main fact to remember is that phone scammers will try to get your personal information or your personal details out of you through different tactics to commit identity theft. They may use a friendly tone or try to threaten you but do not allow them to take advantage of you.
Here is what you genuinely need to know about phone scams and how to avoid being a victim of them.
How to Identify a Phone Scam
There are a lot of phone scams, but the way to carry out them is very similar. Following are some ways to recognize phone scams.
1. There is no lottery
A phone scammer may call you to announce a “winner” in a lottery that you did not even apply for. But if you have to pay to get access to the lottery, then it is not real. Although, scammers make it sound very authentic and original. If there is a cost for you to obtain the lottery if you need to provide some sensitive details like your Social Security Number, the chances that it is a scam are very high.
2. You will not be arrested
Lots of scammers will try to imitate law enforcement agencies to intimidate you into providing your personal information or to send money for taxes. That is not how official agencies work. Genuine law authorization offices don’t call and threaten you.
3. Government agencies do not call to collect sensitive data
No government or federal agency calls you personally to collect sensitive data. Even if they say they are with the social security administration, do not give them access to your social security number or any other personal information.
4. Permission to Call
If a company wants to sell you something, they need some written permission to call you with a robocall. If you have given your number to the National Do Not Call Registry, live sales calls from different companies are not allowed on your number. If that happens, those companies are breaking the law by calling you. Assuming that occurs, there is a big chance that the call is a scam.
To get to quickly know who is calling you, use Nuwber to check who the phone number belongs to. It will give you an idea if that is a real person representing a service or a scam.
Various Examples of Phone Scams
1. Charlatan Scams
A scammer who pretends to be someone that you trust (can pose as a government agent) like IRS or SS Administrator. Scammers nowadays have the ability to convince you by having a fake number or a name shown on your caller ID. Moreover, they have a way with words that makes you believe them.
2. Credit Repair Scam
A lot of times, scammers try to give you an incentive to repair your credit score or to provide you a lower credit card interest rate by providing them with lower fees first. But in doing so, you can lose all your money and even ruin your credit score.
3. Charity Scams
The most basic form of scam is charity scam as scammers use the goodness in people to help themselves with getting out money from you. In the name of any self-made charity fund such as disaster relief funds and orphanage funds. Try to always check out the charity before you give in to the requests. Do not provide the callers with money over the phone directly under pressure.
4. Extended Vehicle Warranty
Modern scammers have unearthed a new way to scam people by getting your vehicle details and trying to urge you to buy worthless or overpriced vehicle service contracts and auto warranties.
How to avoid calls from Scammers
1. Hang up
Quite possibly, the most effective way to keep away from scam calls is to just hang up on the calls. If it is a call from a scammer or a whole company of scammers, you do not have to even answer the calls. At the point when you get a robocall, do not press any number the call directs you to. Rather than talking to a live call agent or putting you on a DNC list, these scammers start giving you more robocalls.
2. Call Block
Nowadays, scammers have the ability to make calls to anyone with the help of the internet through unlimited numbers. It does not bother them if you are present on the DNC list. So to make your defense strong against unwanted calls is to put the number in your block list.
Although, the options on how to block a number, whether it be a cell phone, a home phone, or calls made over the internet (VoIP) depend on your phone carrier. You can contact your carrier to provide you with the necessary details. Also, there are numerous call-blocking apps present on the android play store or Appstore. You can take help from them.
3. Do not trust your caller ID
There are numerous ways for scammers to make you believe that the caller ID with which they are calling is valid and legitimate. This is known as spoofing. It can have anyone believe that the caller is a real one, and this is not a scammer.
Conclusion
There are a ton of ways that scammers use nowadays to scam you out of your money and private information. You should always be vigilant and cautious of such scammers. If you have lost money or have any information about scammers or the company by which they operate, you can contact the authorities at the Fraud Report Bureau.
If you have encountered any scammers and have not lost anything to them but want to keep your phone number secure and out of harm’s way, you can fill out the form at DoNotCall.gov. This website will keep track of your phone number and will not allow any sales calls or scammer’s calls to reach you. Report the phone number that appears on the Caller ID or any number that asks you to call them back to avail any services they are offering. Lastly, keep a close check on the numbers that you get a call from and report them as soon as possible as that helps the competent authorities keep the scammers at bay and to keep you safe from losing important personal information and money.
Read Also
- The Cybersecurity Risks of Merging Business & Pleasure
- How GPS Cell Phone Tracking Works?
- 6 Reliable Ways to Track Someone’s Location by Cell Phone Number
Sarah Durrani 
Bethany Wilson 
