Types of Phone Scams
Phone scams are very common these days. They always take place due to people’s fears or generosity. As per the current data of the 2019 U.S. Spam and Scam Report, approximately 1 in 6 USA residents lost money due to phone scams in the last 12 months. Scam artists are very good in their jobs and they use popular names to call which helps them to look original and legitimate. They told you to make payment through bank wire transfer and gift card. They ask you for your sensitive information like bank account numbers, passwords, birthdates etc. The original authorities will never ask for these details from their customers because they already consist all the details of their clients.
In this article, we are going to discuss the top 10 phone scams which take place generally these days.
- Threatening calls from the IRS.
- Technical support calls.
- Lottery scams
- Ask for Website password
- Bank fraud calls.
Threatening calls from the IRS
This type of scam mostly takes place during the tax season. They threaten most the big lawsuits or large business own by saying that must pay your tax right now otherwise, the police are on the way to arrest you. The speakers like officials and sometimes they should provide a badge number.
As per Buxton: the IRS never call you by phone. It is a very big sign it’s a scam. They ask you for the payments in the form of gift cards, or an online bank transfer. IRS will never ask you to do something like this. The IRS will contact you through email first and then they send you a warning letter. They never call you and ask for online payments.
Technical support calls
In this scam, the scammer tries claiming that they are from big companies like software companies and others. They tell you that your personal computer is not working or your laptop consists of errors. After that, they will convince you to follow the steps as they are dictating. They said through these steps they will resolve your PC problem. But in reality, they were installing some scam software in your computer for gathering your personal data from your laptop.
According to Witt, they use your personal data for elder abuse due to the shortage of technical civilization. These big companies never make unsolicited phone calls to their customers.
Lottery Scams
If somebody is calling you randomly and says that you get selected for a foreign lottery. Never believe in these types of phone calls, all these are scam calls. They will ask you to pay government tax and other taxes in favor to collect the reward money. With this thing, you can easily understand that they are a scam. Because “ why should I need to pay for something I have won.?
Ask for Website Password
The scam first tells to follow their step through these step they will install scam software in your PC, laptop, mobile phone, etc. After this, they will ask you for your password for providing technical support or they said you that the company is taking follow-up from their customers. After that, they ask you for the password to favor of doing identity verification. Must note that the company never asks for your password. So do not disclose a website password on the phone calls. Must change your password from time to time during a particular time interval.
Bank Fraud Calls
Most of the time they pretend to be the bank officials. They will call you and said that they make a call to inform you about potential fraud happening with other customers. They ask questions regarding your bank account details as per providing security. They ask for your account number, your bank card details, your Debit/Credit card pin, and other sensitive details. Never tell all these details to anyone on a phone call. The bank never asks for sensitive details on a phone call. They told you to visit your bank branch regarding any problem.
Dos and Don’ts for the phone scams
Dos
- Register your phone number on the FTC’s National Do Not Call Registry. They do not stop spam calls, but they will make it easier to spot them because most of the scammers do not call you if you are registered.
- Must start using spam call blocking software to protect your device. Ask your provider either they offering any application to detect scam calls.
- Must block on illegal robocalls.
Don’ts
- Try to ignore any unknown number calls. Must save your friends and family phone numbers.
- Never call back on one ring calls came from the unknown number. They sometimes scam calls which forwards you call hotlines in the Caribbean and African countries that consist of U.S.-way three-digit area codes.
- Never follow their instructions as they are telling you. Must confirm from your bank or other authority from whom they are supposed to be.
Conclusion:
Phone scams are very common these days because of advanced technologies. In this article we explain some common phone scams and how to deal with them. They will harm your bank account funds and sometimes they target your reputation due to a lack of social knowledge. This article will address you how should you can deal with these scam phone calls.
