Posted November 9, 2019
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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received more than 940,000 fraud complaints in 2018 in which a contact method was identified, and 69% of the time a call was the swindler’s way in. It’s easy to understand why crooks love to dial you up. The FTC reports that the median loss from a phone scam in 2018 was $840, more than double the median loss across all fraud types. And new technology is making this illicit work easier.
See below for some common warning signals of a fraudulent phone call and what to look out for and click here for even more phone call Do’s and Don’ts.
Common Warning Signs
- Unsolicited calls from people claiming to work for a government agency, public utility or major tech firm, like Microsoft or Apple. These companies and institutions will rarely call you unless they have first communicated by other means or you have contacted them.
- Unsolicited calls from charity fundraisers, especially after disasters.
- Calls pitching products or services with terms that sound too good to be true. Common scam offers include free product trials, cash prizes, cheap travel packages, medical devices, preapproved loans, debt reduction, and low-risk, high-return investments.
- An automated sales call from a company you have not authorized to contact you. That’s an illegal robocall and almost certainly a scam. (Automated calls are permitted for some informational or non-commercial purposes — for example, from political campaigns or nonprofit groups like AARP.)
Source: https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2019/phone.html (AARP)
