Protect Yourself from Phone Spoofing
We have all received unsolicited phone calls. We also think we are pretty good at spotting scams. But what happens when you receive a phone call from someone or someplace you know? You pick up. You chat. Your guard goes down. This is why phone scams use a technique called “spoofing.”
What is spoofing? Spoofing is when a caller deliberately falsifies the information transmitted to your caller ID display to disguise their identity. Scammers often use ‘neighbor spoofing’ so it appears that an incoming call is coming from a local number, or spoof a number from family, friends, government agencies, banks, law enforcement or charities. If you answer, they use scam scripts to try to steal your money or valuable personal information.
Since people are more likely to pick up a call from a known number, this scam unfortunately works. According to the Federal Trade Commission, more than $590 million has been lost to spoofing in the past year.
Unfortunately, there isn’t anything you can do to protect your phone number from being used in a scam. If you learn that your phone number has been spoofed, you should alert your contacts and update your voicemail telling people that your number may be being used in a scam. Changing your phone number is not needed, as any phone number can be used at any time without warning.
You can protect yourself and your information from falling victim to a spoofing scam by doing the following:
- Avoid answering calls from unknown numbers.
- Don’t trust your caller ID. Spoofed numbers can appear on your phone as being from trusted sources.
- If you do answer and suspect fraud, hang up immediately. Do not give any answers or push any buttons. Voice samples may be used to subscribe you to products unknowingly and pushing buttons can register you as an active number.
- Never give out personal, financial, or account information over the phone to someone who calls you. Hang up. Look up the organization’s number in a phone book, account statement or other legitimate source and call them. Don’t hit redial.
- No legitimate company, government agency, police station, or sheriff office accepts gift cards or prepaid Visas as payment. Beware of callers asking you to urgently purchase these items.
- Report scam phone calls to the Federal Communications Commission. Annually, more than 170,000 scam calls are logged with the organization, but that is only the tip of the iceberg!
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