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Receiving spam calls is a widespread problem. In 2022, Americans received 50.3 Billion Robocalls, which is ever-growing.
Scam calls are not just annoying, but they can be dangerous and deceiving. Scammers make these calls sound so legitimate that nearly 70 Million Americans lost their money to scam calls.
Scammers can get your number through multiple ways.
Data brokers are the companies that buy and sell personal information. It includes emails, house addresses, and phone numbers as well.
Most online websites require users’ personal information for shopping or other purposes. Data brokers sell this information to other organizations.
These organizations then make calls to targeted audiences. Deliberately or not, these data brokers may sell the phone number list to scammers.
Scammers then make fraudulent calls to deceive people, pretending to be FBR or a bank representative.
As mentioned above, websites require the personal information of the users. The personal information includes phone numbers for contact purposes.
Scammers use scraping software to scrape phone numbers from websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. After generating a list of phone numbers, scammers make phone calls.
Scammers use phone number lookup services to target specific people. Lookup services collect databases of phone numbers through online directories, public records, and online information.
Scammers will look for the phone numbers of specific targeted audiences from these sources.
For example, they will look for the phone number of account holders at a certain bank and then make scam calls pretending to be bank representatives and requesting sensitive banking information.
Spoofing is a common technique used by hackers to trick people. Scammers, via this technique, change the caller ID details when they call the victim.
A phone call is coming from a different number than it actually is. It seems to the victim that they receive calls from legitimate authorities, such as a well-known company, and they respond.
Scammers hack the databases of organizations and even vulnerable websites. When scammers gain access, they steal the personal information of employees, customers, and online users.
For example, scammers hack a renowned company’s website’s database and steal its customers’ phone numbers.
They make calls pretending to be the company’s representative and deceive the customers by claiming their parcels have been put on hold due to insufficient funds.
The scam calls are increasingly getting more sophisticated, making it difficult for people to identify them. The rings are of various types:
On average, companies make 52 Cold Calls per day to sell their goods to customers. Scammers find customers who want to buy a particular item by checking different websites.
They scrape the phone numbers of those users and trap them into buying the product by offering them half of its original price.
Since 2018, 45.87 billion robocalls have been sent to American phones. Robocalls are automated phone calls to deliver messages to many customers at once.
Most of these calls are illegal and designed to deceive customers. Scammers sometimes don’t even look for phone numbers from data and randomly try different combinations of numbers, hoping they will hit a target.
Grandparent Scams are prevalent these days. Scammers obtain personal information about families from public records, then place fake calls to grandparents, falsely claiming that their grandchildren are in an emergency and need money.
Scammers try to woo people after fooling them into believing they have won the lottery.
To win the prize, they must pay taxes to claim it. Naive people who fall into the trap pay the amount, and the scammers disappear.
Merely answering a scam call will only get you into trouble if you comply with the scammers’ instructions. Scammers persuade people to give out their personal information and transfer funds.
Some may also ask victims to download certain phone apps to get authorized access.
Thus, you won’t get deceived by JUST answering a scam call.
There are several risks that you expose yourself to by answering a scam call:
Scammers strive to convince the victims to send money by selling them a product or service that doesn’t exist. Some may also emotionally manipulate people into giving to charity.
Scammers try to steal victims’ personal information that they use in illegal ways. Once they have all the relevant information, they may open new accounts in the victim’s name and make fraudulent purchases.
By stealing personal information, scammers also ask for loans from your bank.
Scammers work in a network. They target victims who are vulnerable and can be susceptible to new scams.
When a victim entertains a fraudulent call, other scammers get to know that this number is activated. This way, they continue to target the same person.
Here is how you need to protect yourself against spam calls
If you receive a call from an unknown number, pay attention. Disconnect the call immediately if the call is from an unknown person. Refrain from pressing any keys on the phone while the call is going on, as it will notify the scammers that you are active.
Spam Calls are designed to deceive people into sharing their personal information. If a caller from an unknown number asks you for personal data like your credit card number or bank account information, hang up immediately.
Always remember that authorized banks never ask for their customers’ sensitive information.
If you are unable to gauge if the call you received is legitimate or not, you can confirm the caller’s details by checking the organization’s phone number mentioned on their website.
If you suspect that the call you received is fraudulent, immediately report it to the authorities. They will track down the scammers.
Your information will help authorities protect other people from such scams by developing prevention strategies accordingly.
Most importantly, it will assist in identifying new scams as well. You can also file complaints with law enforcement if you are scammed out of money.
Practicing caution is essential, but if you activate scam call blocking on your phone, the chances of receiving scam calls will drastically decrease.
Now let’s explain how you can block spam calls on your iPhone and Android devices.
In the iPhone, there are multiple settings that you can employ to keep yourself safe from fraudulent calls.
This feature can be a great tool for some people. However, if you run a business and entertain clients via phone calls, you must use another method.
It is a carrier-specific option; if you don’t have it, it’s not enabled by your carrier.
If you run a legitimate business, this method will work for you. It will not eliminate all of the spam calls but can be advantageous to some extent.
Carriers offer spam caller apps to their subscribers, but these apps might be paid. You can spam caller apps for free as well.
Android devices have built-in features to limit the spam calls. It only takes a few steps to block the scam callers.
Just like the iPhone, you can block spam callers by installing Spam Caller Apps and enabling them on your phone.
Due to changes in communication practices, people communicate with each other on laptops and computers, especially for business and educational meetings.
Traditional phone lines are no longer used to make calls. Platforms like Zoom, Skype, and Microsoft Teams are being used to communicate effectively with one another as they support both audio and video calls.
You may get spam calls on these platforms.
Thus, protecting your systems from hackers and scammers is very important. Apply the tips mentioned and stay safe from spam calls.
Also, use a reputable VPN like PureVPN to filter out the spam traffic while using the internet.
Purevpn will help you hide your IP and true location to dodge the scammers. It can also generate a dedicated IP address specifically for you, so have a secure traffic tunnel reserved only for you.
Scammers cannot spoof their caller ID when the traffic is encrypted and routed through a different tunnel. This way, you will protect yourself against malicious intent from the internet.
To give a specific answer, no. We must coexist with the scam calls while learning to defend ourselves from them. People need to be aware that with knowledge, these scammers are getting better and bigger every day.
Thus, they need to be more on guard. Increased awareness is the only way to protect yourself from being scammed.
It is up to you how much caution you practice regarding the information you share and how you handle unwanted calls.