Phone scams

Phone scams are still something to be aware of although most of the scams are online based. However, there are those who still use the phone in an attempt to steal your identity or gain access to you bank/credit card account information. Phones scams have been on the decline but there are a few still popular phone scams still in use today. Here are a few examples of some phone scams.

Soon we will be filing taxes at the end of the year and one of the biggest phone scams called the IRS scam. A person will contact you pretending to be a person from the IRS. They will state that you have been identified as a person who owes back taxes. The scammer will attempt to frighten you with some type of legal action unless you pay a certain amount over the phone. They will require your personal information in order to verify all your information is correct. Again this is a trick to get your date of birth or social security number. According to the IRS page they will never contact you to demand any type of payment. If you owe any money they function as a business and like a business you will received a bill in the mail prior to any contact with you.

The next scam would be a person calling you claiming to be from the Sheriff or US Marshals office stating at some point you failed to report for jury duty this is called the jury duty scam.  In order for you to not be arrested in the future you have to provide some personal information and pay a fine. If you fail to report for jury duty depending on where you live if you miss a day of jury duty in most cases the court will just through you back in the jury pool and select you for another time and date. In other states if you miss jury duty you may be issued a summons ranging from $100.00 to $1500.00 with a court appearance.

We all have problems with our computer or mobile device and we will need some type of tech support. In this scam tech support calls you this called the tech support scam. They will call you ask you stating they received some type of error coming from your device. They will ask you to log in so they can connect to your computer remotely so they can fix your problem. We all know and have a basic understanding on how computers, laptops, tablets and cell phones should work. So whenever you need some type of help with your device make sure you are the one contacting any type of tech support.  

When you get a call do not give out any information hang up immediately and contact the Federal trade Commission to report your complaint via www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov or call 877-382-4657. You have to fill out a 6 page of forms through their FTC complaint Assistant they also provide an online chat. A preventative measure you can use against phone scams is an app called Phonetrap. This application can be installed on any mobile device it will unmask any restricted calls to your phone. You have to pay a minimal monthly fee but it’s worth the fee to ensure you do not receive any restricted calls.

I hope this post was helpful please leave a comment below

Mark Carvajal