Tech Talk with Jeff - Phone Scams
Don't fall victim to scammers.
We live in a world where there are people who try to take advantage of us. It is unfortunate, but this requires us to be ever diligent in watching for potential scams. Gone are the days when you could easily pick out a scam by the misspellings and other telltale signs. Scammers are getting more sophisticated. Scams are coming at us through many methods and the threats are coming from all over the world.
If you ever receive a call from someone you don’t know and they ask you a question that requires you to say “yes”, hang up and don’t answer that question. An example is “Can you hear me?”. The scammer records you saying “yes” and then uses that when trying to take over your accounts since a lot of companies validate changes to accounts, settings, etc. using your voice and that word. They may also use that recorded “yes” to claim that you agreed to whatever scam they are trying to push. This attempt to get you to say “yes” most often occurs at the beginning of the call. Don’t engage the scammer. You want to be off that phone and not saying anything to them. It is good to be skeptical and to question unexpected calls, especially from numbers you don’t recognize. The scammers are always out there trying to find ways to trick you into giving them what they want and even experts have been caught in these scams.
If you feel you have been a victim of a phone scam, please contact your local police department for assistance.
