People nowadays avoid answering their phones when the caller is not on their contacts; this presents a problem if you are receiving a legitimate or emergency call since you will ignore it. I know some people say, “Oh, if it's an emergency they will try again…”; but what if they can't?
Personally, I answer my phone even if I don't recognize the number; however, that presents an issue. With the number of robocalls and spam calls, it has become ridiculously difficult to answer calls and not get frustrated. Personally, it's very annoying some times while others it becomes an entertaining event for me and those around me.
The most alarming aspect in all of these is the people that fall prey to these scams and lose money or even worst, get their identity stolen. I'll cover the list of steps that you should follow when receiving any calls that may seem legitimate to prevent leaking any sensitive information over the phone
Identifying SCAMs (SPAM)
If you pickup up a call and you hear a pre-recorded message, odds are you are receiving a SPAM call. In these cases, I recommend hanging up immediately.
If the voice on the other end is from a real person but they don't know who you are and are not able to refer to you by your full name; then this is a PHISHING attempt in which they are trying to extract information out to be used later to gain trust. Immediately hang up in these situations to avoid revealing any information.
IMPORTANT: the IRS or any other governmental agency will not collect payment using gift cards and they will not be reaching out to you via phone or email. If the government want to reach you to resolve any issues then they will be contacting you via traditional Postal Mail
Dealing With Legitimate Calls
Sometimes you will get a real call from a legitimate source like your bank, credit card company, airline, etc. because there is an issue with your account, ticket, etc. that needs to be resolved. In these cases, the person on the other end will have some information about you that they will use to verify that they are talking with the right person. If that is the case they will provide your full name and ask you to confirm that it is you; however, they will ask you right away to give them some sensitive information to verify your identity.
Before giving out any personal information, I inform the individual on the call that I will not reveal any personal information in order to protect my identity and I ask for a call back number that I can use to reach them; sometimes this number could be different than the caller id. If the person on the other end gets frustrated with you it's OK you are doing the right thing. Before you hangup make sure you ask what the purpose of the call was and where they are calling from so you can corroborate the information when you call back. The reason we do this is because the number could have been spoofed and therefore even if the caller id looks legitimate it does not guarantee that the call initiated from that number.
Even if you received a callback number you should look up the contact numbers for the agency/company that called you to verify it is indeed a legitimate number; sometimes they give you toll-free number that is not legitimate. Good sources to find the correct information will be the bank or company website, the back of your credit or debit card, or even the yellow pages if you still use those 😉
Once you have found the right number to call, dial in and explain that you have received a call and you are trying to resolve any issues. If you are initiating the call you can be sure that you will be connected to the number that you dialed, that's why it's very important to find the correct number. If you don't find the specific number to the right department that just called then dial the main customer service line and they will be able to redirect you to the correct department.
IMPORTANT: NEVER give out you social security number, credit/debit card number, bank account number, or any other personal identifying information if you did not initiate the call
Emails And Passwords
With the advent of the digital age, we have come to trust on email most than ever. Our online banking, social media, shopping, etc. all rely on our email accounts for communication; that's why it's important to protect it and identify potential PHISHING attempts to prevent the leak of any sensitive information.
If you receive an email asking you for money in exchange for not publishing compromising pictures of yourself, odds are that it is a scam and they are trying to SCAM you. Think about it; if they truly have that information about you and you send them money, they could use that again even if you pay them. So, don't fall for it; mark the email as SPAM or DELETE it.
Passwords are the keys to our online homes, so we need to make them strong and keep them protected. Follow the simple rules below and you should be on your way to protecting your information online
- Make passwords strong and hard to guess, so avoid using things like password, 123, s3cr3t, etc. as these are not secure at all and will compromise your security
- Avoid using public information in your passwords, things like your date of birth, plate number, street address, etc. as these can be found by an attacker
- Avoid password reuse across sites because if one of those sites is compromised and they did not take proper measurements to store your password then an attacker will theoretically have access to all your passwords
- Use a password manager to keep your passwords strong and unique for each application and/or app.
- Use two-factor authentication whenever possible.
Hopefully, this has been helpful and informative. Please share with friends and relatives to help them protect their information and avoid falling victims to these types of SCAMs.
