It’s Your Call: Here’s How You Can Put an End To Phone Scams

A blog about phone scams and how you can avoid them.

Phones are powerful tools. A good phone call can change your life. It’s how you get hired for a new job or catch up with old friends. Most of the time, phones are a positive force in your life. But sometimes they aren’t. Sometimes they carry bad news or connect you to people who want to trick you out of your money and personal information. These bad actors — also known as fraudsters — are getting more sophisticated every day. They are using technology to make their calls seem more real and they’re learning how to use data to target victims more effectively. In fact, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission received more than 2 million complaints about unwanted telemarketing calls in 2016 alone. They’ve gotten so good at imitating legitimate phone numbers that it can be hard for even a trained expert to tell the difference between a real call and a fake one.

The good news is that protecting yourself from fraudsters doesn’t require becoming a scammer whisperer yourself, but there are some steps you can take to stay safe

It’s Your Call: Here’s How You Can Put an End To Phone Scams

It’s Your Call: Here’s How You Can Put an End To Phone Scams.

Phone scams are getting more and more sophisticated, but the FTC is working hard to help consumers stop them.

Phone scams are nothing new. But they keep evolving, becoming sneakier and harder to spot. Last year, the FTC received more than 3 million reports of phone scams. The most common complaints related to fraud involving debt relief services, impostor scams (where a caller pretends to be someone you know or a government official), and fake checks.

The good news is that there are steps you can take to stop these calls from reaching you in the first place – and actions you can take if you think you’ve been scammed.

In May, the FTC released a report on the top phone scams reported to its Consumer Sentinel Network. At the top of the list: debt collection scams.

How can you spot a scam? The FTC’s blog gives you some tips:

– If someone claiming to be from the government asks for money or personal information, it’s probably a scam. The government usually won’t call you out of the blue. And if someone does call, ask them to send you information in writing.

– If a company calls and tells you that they’re going to sue you or put you in jail, don’t believe it. It’s not true; it’s fraud.

– If someone tells you that your family member is in trouble and needs money, don’t send any unless you know for sure that it’s true.

– If your caller ID says “Private Number” or “Unknown Number,” don’t answer it – if it were important, they’d leave their name and number.

We hear from people every day who have lost money to a phone scam. If you’ve been scammed yourself, you’re not alone. Phone scams are most likely to occur in the fall and winter months.

In 2016, we received more than 1.3 million reports of fraud and identity theft from people like you—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We believe there may be millions of victims of phone scams who don’t report their experiences to us or other authorities. These losses add up to billions of dollars each year.

The good news is that you can help put a stop to phone scams by reporting them to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). We use information from complaints like yours to shut down scammers, return money they stole, and help people avoid getting ripped off in the first place.

So if you spot a scam, let us know! Here’s what you need to know about spotting and reporting phone scams:

Don’t be fooled by spoofing

Every day, millions of Americans pick up the phone to answer calls from people they don’t know. They’re getting robocalls about their credit card interest rates, calls from scammers pretending to be IRS agents, and calls from technical support scammers. Sometimes it seems like the scammers are winning.

If you spend any time talking to people who answer phones for a living, you quickly realize how much scam calls are hurting consumers. “[Scam callers] are very aggressive, and they can be very mean and get in your face with some pretty vulgar language if you don’t comply with what they want,” one fraud victim told us.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to fight back against scam callers and protect yourself and your family. If you think that the only way to stop scam calls is to hang up on them, think again: FTC’s new spoofing rules give carriers significant new tools to block unwanted calls before they reach your phone.*

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The best way to fight back against scam callers is not to answer the phone at all. If you don’t pick up a call, it can’t scam you.*

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Call blocking tools won

Nowadays, it’s hard to tell a real call from a scam. The scams are becoming more and more sophisticated. So here are some tips to help you avoid being scammed by phone.

Scammers are getting smarter

Have you ever received a call from someone pretending to be with the CRA? Or even your bank? These scammers use official-looking logos and fake phone numbers on caller ID that make them look like the real deal. They’re also becoming more convincing in their approach, often using personal details about you to gain your trust.

How do they get personal information about you? Your information might be available online — from social media websites or other sites that require personal details for registration — or it could have been obtained during an earlier data breach. Unfortunately, scammers can also hack into voicemail systems, so listening to messages left for you is not foolproof.

How to protect yourself

Some things to keep in mind:

* Never provide personal information over the phone unless you initiate the call and trust the number. If someone calls and asks for this information, ask them to give it to you in another way (for example, via email). Then contact the organization directly to confirm whether the call was legitimate before responding.

Telephone fraud is a persistent and growing problem. The most recent statistics from the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Consumer Sentinel Network show that nearly 1.3 million people reported losing over $744 million to fraud in 2018. Fraudulent activity cost Americans even more money in 2019, with losses of more than $1.9 billion reported to the FTC, FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies during the year.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made matters worse. Scammers are leveraging people’s fear of contracting the virus to trick them into handing over their money or personal information. The FTC received more than 70,000 reports of COVID-19-related scams in 2020 alone.

The most commonly reported types of phone fraud include imposter scams, where scammers pretend to be someone you know or trust; debt collection scams, where scammers pose as bill collectors; and government imposter scams, where scammers pretend to be representatives of government agencies like the Social Security Administration (SSA).

If you have questions about whether a caller is legitimate or not, it may be wise just to hang up on them and call back using the number listed on their website. It’s safer than giving out your information to someone who