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Published August 26, 2019

Tired of Dealing with Spam Phone Calls?

Phones and cellphones are pretty great they give a person access to everyone important to them. Unfortunately, phones also give everyone access to that person. Spammers and scammers can get in touch with anyone thanks to phones, and that can be incredibly annoying. No one likes to be interrupted, especially for something that isn’t important.

Spammers are typically either telemarketers who want to sell a product or service or survey takers looking to ask some question. Scammers want to trick a person in to doing something for them. Neither group is fun to talk to on the phone.

Luckily, caller ID has enabled people to recognize who is calling before answering the phone. This saves everyone from having to talk to spam/scam phone call, but they still make the phone ring and leave annoying messages. With how frequently these calls come in, many people assume there is no escape, but that is not the case. There are things that people can do to save themselves from these obnoxious calls.

How Do They Get the Numbers?

Spammers and scammers can get a person’s telephone number through a number of means. They can get it online from public social media accounts, however this is less common with today’s privacy settings.

More often than not, these people get the phone numbers from online registries. Basically every time a person puts their phone number into a form online, they’ve given it to someone who will misuse it. This is true even if the site is a credible one, which is why it is recommended that if a person doesn’t want to receive spam calls, they should never give out phone number anywhere online.

How to Deal with the Calls

If a person is like most people, then they have already put their phone number out there a couple of times and are receiving scam/spam phone calls on a regular basis. There are a few different things that a person can do to help themselves avoid being bothered by these calls.

Most spam phone calls are either from telemarketers or surveyors. They either want to sell you something, or ask you some questions. They never call at a good time, and typically call when a person is about to sit down for a meal. Simply ignoring the calls doesn’t work, because they just keep calling back, so what to do? Well, try one of the following:

• Report the number. If a number is being extra annoying, it can be reported to Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Simply fill out a 1088G form, which can easily be done online. It is supposed to be a very effective way to stop the phone calls from occurring.
• Register your number. The FCC also has another way to protect consumers from annoying phone calls. A person can place their phone number on the DoNotCall list. After about a month, all calls should stop. If any spam call comes in after that month, the person can report the call to the FCC and the caller will face some heavy fines. It is worth noting that the FCC does not call and offer to put a number on the DoNotCall list. Any call claiming to do this is a scam and should be ignored.
• Create a Spam Contact. This method doesn’t prevent all scam and spam calls, but it can protect from known bad numbers. A person simply creates a contact on their phone for Spam, and anytime they receive a scam/spam phone call, they add that number to the spam contact. This way, when the number calls again, it will pop up as Spam. A person can even set a silent, personal ringtone for the contact so that it doesn’t actually ring.
• Forward to SPAM. When it comes to receiving spam/scam texts, a person can typically report the numbers to their service provider. Simply forward the message to 7726, which is the phone key combo for spam. The service provider will respond with a text asking for the guilty number, just send the number back and they will block that number from sending out anymore spam.

Keep Your Phone Quiet

No one like to be bothered, especially not repeatedly. Sadly, scammers and spammers love to use a person’s precious cellphone to get in touch with them whenever they want. Thankfully, there are steps a person can take to keep their phone safe from spammers and scammers. Taking any of the actions above can help a person keep their phone nice and quiet.

What’s the most annoying spam or scam phone call(s) that you have ever dealt with? Tell everyone how you dealt with the problem.

Published June 3, 2019

Could a Scammer Really Steal Your Home?

There are a lot of things in life that don’t come easy. This includes things like money, a home, and happiness. Often times, these things are usually pretty worth the effort they take to earn. Unfortunately, since they do require so much effort to get, there are many people out there that would much rather take a shortcut to get these things.

These people are often called scammers. Instead of working to get something for themselves, scammers attempt to take things from others by manipulating their intended victims. Yet another scam going around involves scammers stealing the rights to a home out from underneath the homeowner.

They Target Lightly Used Property

Owning a home is a big accomplishment, and the building itself is very important to the people living within it. No one ever wants to lose their home, which is why people do everything they can to protect their home. Unfortunately, some scammers have figured out a way to take ownership of a home from the actual owners.

The scam starts with the scammer finding some property to steal. Typically, the scammers will target places like rentals, vacation homes, or vacant pieces of property. They like this kind of property because it is not as carefully watched over as a person’s home would be.

Once a target has been selected, the scammer locates the owner and steals their identity by taking the victim’s personal information. This can easily be done online, or by stealing the victim’s mail.

From there, the scammer acquires documents to transfer property. They fill out the paperwork to transfer the property from the real owner to themselves and forge the victim’s signature. They then file the paperwork with the proper authorities. Once they have done that, the property belongs to the scammer in the eyes of the law. It would likely take a lengthy court battle to get the property back, if at all.

Keep an Eye Out for This Scam

Some of the best ways to avoid this scam include, shredding documents once they are no longer needed, and never personal information. This includes over the phone, through email, or online with social media accounts.

Another good tip is to keep an eye on mail. Counties usually send copies documents about property to the property in question. If a person sees documents about their property that they don’t recognize, they should look into it right away, especially if the document has a signature of theirs that doesn’t look right. Lastly, property owners should be very wary if they suddenly stop receiving any utility bills or property tax forms for the property. That can be a major red flag.

Don’t Get Scammed

No one ever wants to lose their home, or any of their property for that matter. They spend a lot of time, money, and effort to get it. Unfortunately, there are plenty of scammers out there looking to take advantage of hardworking people. In order to avoid getting scammed, people need to stay vigilant, and trust their guts when they suspect that something might be wrong. After all, it is better to be safe than sorry.

What are some of the oddest scams people have tried to pull on you?

Published May 20, 2019

Yet Another Scam Sweeping Across the Nation

Scams are never fun to deal with. No one ever wants to lose some of their hard earned money just because someone tricked them. Sadly, falling for scams is easier than people are aware. Scammers have dozens of different plays that they can use to trick unsuspecting targets. If the trick works, the target becomes a victim.

Once a person becomes a victim, they usually become aware of the fact that they have been scammed. Unfortunately, after this point, it is often too late to get the lost money back. This is often due to the fact that scammers often ask for the money in a way that is impossible to trace. It is a whole lot easier to prevent a scam than it is to fix things after a scam. This makes it all the more important for a person to be aware of scams and how they work.

The One Ring Scam

A new scam that is making its rounds around the country, is being referred to as the One Ring Scam. A scammer robocalls a series of numbers, all usually within the same area. The scammer lets the phone ring once or twice, and then hangs up. The process is usually repeated several times over the course of a day or two.

At first, this doesn’t sound like much of a scam, it sounds more like a prank call. However, all of this is meant to get the target’s attention. The hope is that the target will call the number back, where they will be asked to pay a fee for a long distance phone call. This “fee” gets paid to the scammer, and the target becomes a victim.

The scam doesn’t seem very effective at first glance. Most people don’t answer random numbers, and even if they did answer this call, they would just get hung up on. The trick with this scam is the repetitive nature of the calls. Many people might not answer a call from a random number, but after many calls from the same number, they may become curious. They may even think it might be important, after all, the person is really trying to get ahold of them. That is what causes most people to call the number back, and fall victim to the scam.

This is why the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is warning people about this new scam. It is rarely a good idea to answer a phone call from a number that a person does not know, and calling it back is an even worse idea. Currently, the calls seem to target certain regions all at once, suggesting that the scammers might be targeting area codes. The calls seem to be originating from the African nation of Mauritania with a country code of 222. A person is advised to ignore any phone calls with this country code in the phone number.

Learn to Avoid Scams and Report Them

If a person wants to avoid being scammed, then they need to learn how to recognize different scam behaviors. A big indication something might be a scam is if phone number is one the person doesn’t recognize. Another big indicator is if the phone number is from out of the country. These sorts of phone calls should often be avoided, no matter how persistent the caller may be.

If a person has received a scam phone call like this, than they should report it to the FCC by filling a complaint. Doing so can help put an end to the scam, and help protect other potential victims.