Receiving a Spoof Call
In an effort to steal money and personal information from unsuspecting people, con artists have turned to spoofing telephone numbers. These numbers are made to look like a local phone number, or even a trusted one. While spoofing can be extremely annoying, you can take steps to protect yourself and your financial information.
The most important thing to do if you receive an unknown call is to hang up. Call spoofing technology allows scammers to disguise their calls as legitimate government agencies or organizations. If you answer, the scammers will know your phone number and will try to use it against you in the future.
It is important to note that spoof call are extremely difficult to block. They do not mean your phone has been hacked, so you should never be alarmed. However, if you are getting a lot of these calls, you should consider using an anti-spoofing app. Anti-spoofing apps are designed to minimize the amount of access people have to your phone number and mask the caller with a secondary phone number.
How to Know If You Are Receiving a Spoof Call
Many countries have “do not call” registries that prohibit telemarketers from calling people registered with them. However, adding your phone number to these lists will only have a marginal impact. This is because most number spoofing callers are based overseas.
Spoofing is an extremely common scam, and the most effective way to avoid being taken advantage of is to be vigilant. As a general rule, don’t call any unknown numbers back. In most cases, they’ll try to trick you into giving out your personal information. If you do answer the phone, hang up and ask a trusted friend to check it out. The sooner you identify a scammer, the sooner you can take action.
There are many different ways to tell if you are receiving a spoof call. One way to check if a number is legitimate is to install a reputable caller ID app. Hiya is one of the best caller ID tools. The program also protects your phone against robocalls and fake phone numbers.
Another way to protect yourself from being scammed is to block phone numbers that you are not familiar with. Blocking numbers will make them less attractive to spoofers and make them fall out of use naturally. You can also change the number of the phone number that keeps making the unwanted calls.