Identifying the Most Common Phone Scams

What is this world coming to? Not only do we have door-to-door scammers, email scammers, and internet scammers but now scam artist have come up with new ways to scam the people that they are calling – through phone scams.

And it should be noted that some types of phone scams can lead to a robbery. They might be putting out feelers to identify who is in the home, if there is a security system in place, and much more.

Despite technological advances, telephone scams are getting more and more popular as a way to steal someone’s identity. Scam artist find it easier to do this type of scam and on their end a little safer because it is harder to catch the scammer doing it. There’s no paper trail like there can be on the internet. Plus, they are able to manipulate caller ID systems to make them look like something they’re not.

Recently, there has been a new phone scam called “Can You Hear Me Now?” This scam is a way for the scam artist to access the sound of your voice that is recorded on the scam artist’s end. After the question “Can you hear me now?” is asked and you say “yes,” the scam artist will then say that you have agreed to something. During all the small talk back and forth, the scam artist is gaining access to your personal information or anything else that might be on your phone. Scam artists may use many other questions to gain access to your information. Some other questions they might ask are:

• Are you the lady of the house?
• Are you a homeowner?
• Do you pay the household telephone bill?

Scams like this are being more and more popular and there are many ways that you can protect yourself from them.

Protecting Yourself From Theft Through Phone Scams

1. Don’t Recognize Phone Number: If there is ever a time that you don’t know the number calling or it says restricted, chances are it is someone you don’t know. If that ever happens, just let the call go to voicemail. Scam artists don’t ever leave messages and if it is someone other then a scam artist, they will leave a message.
2. Act Slowly: Don’t always rush to answer your phone. Chances are if you are rushing thinking it is someone you might know and answer the call, you could end up being a victim of a targeted scam. Look carefully at all calls before answering and leaving the unknown numbers to go straight to voicemail.
3. Don’t Answer Any Questions Over The Phone: Answering questions over the phone lead to information in many ways being leaked to the scam artist. Even the littlest details can help a scam artist gain access to your personal information.
4. Never Give Out Information: No matter what, unless you initiate the call when buying anything over the phone, don’t give out your information. If a company ever calls you about an item that you have purchased, there are questions you can ask to verify the caller is really from the company you have purchased your item from.
5. Don’t Pay: If you are ever ordering anything over the phone, the company that you order from normally doesn’t call you to initiate a payment. You as the customer always call the company to pay for your purchases. Never give out your payment information or social security number to an unknown number. One favorite tool of scam artists is asking for wire money transfers. If you ever hear the word wire transfer, you can be sure that it is a scam.

Contact Your Rochester Security Company and Protect Yourself More!

Take action now to be safer when answering the phone. You never know what scam artist is going to be calling next. If you have any questions on how to stay safe contact SPS Fire & Security at 585-770-0348.