What Happens if I Answer A Scam Call?

For many scammers out there, lurking their victims through a phone call has become much easier and effective. According to the research, the consumers reported financial losses of over $300 million in December 2020. The numbers keep increasing because more people have been staying at home during the pandemic, allowing them to receive the scam call.

Some people have taken the best measure to Report Spam Calls to the authorities. But the cases went cold quickly because the scammers used burner phones which were hard to track.

The thing is that many people do not realize that they get scammed because they have answered the call.

You don’t have to fall for the scam since you can learn how to handle them.

When you have received the call

Scammers on the phone always have the same end “money”. If you notice that the scammers lead you to the rushed payment, you don’t want to reach your wallet and pay them easily. They might have threatened you with some “sensible” reasoning. But the more threatening they are to you, the more chances that you are dealing with scammers. In common cases, it is much better to hang up immediately.

If you are not sure whether they are scammers or not, you can’t go wrong by hanging up. Then, you will want to call the organization from whom the representatives proclaim to be. If the organization cannot verify the identity of your caller, you could

Report Unwanted Call to them, or to the authority in your area.

On some occasions, you don’t even need to cross-check the identity of the callers. For instance, if someone claims to be an IRS representative, you could just hang up and Report Spam Numbers to the authorities. The IRS will never call their clients directly.

All in all, never spend your money for something that you get over the phone.

Here are the first things that you need to do when receiving robocalls or scammers calls:

Never pick up calls from strange numbers.

Cross-check the caller ID, official agencies will never call you from other numbers unless on rare occasions.

Never transfer money by wire or gift card to someone claiming to be a government agency.

Preventing the spam or scam calls

Spam calls have been significantly increasing in most recent years. But it doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about it. There is no shortage of options to handle the scam.

Phone carriers blocker service

Many phone carriers offer their clients to add more shields to protect them from the phone scammers and spams. Not only that you are able to Report Scam Numbers, you can also prevent the scamming calls from happening.

Call blockers are the services that you want to attain to protect yourself from the scammers.

You might have different phone carriers in your country. The phone carrier's blocker services might be an expensive addition for your monthly expense. Consider researching the service in each phone carrier. Focus on the phone carrier which is suitable with your preferences and needs.

Install blockers apps

There are a lot of apps that you can use to help you block the scam and spam callers. Some are free, but some are paid. You could expect the limitations of the free apps. The paid apps are proven to be better. But if you don’t want to spend money to handle the scams, you could use free phone blocker apps. Most of them have a feature where you can Report Scam Phone Calls to the officials. Some of the best free phone blockers apps that you can install on your device are Hiya, Call Blocker, CallApp, Call Control, and so on.

Register your phone to top FTC website

There have been positive reports about “National Do Not Call Registry”. You can register your phone to the official NDNCR website to stop robocalls or scammers from calling your phone numbers. Although it does not guarantee the safety of your phone 100% from the scams, the regulated providers and telemarketers will stop calling the numbers you’ve registered to the website.

You might need to register your phone number with another company if you are located in another area.

Reporting the phone calls scams

you will have the right to Report Harassing Phone Calls to the FTC - Federal Trade Commission or FCC - Federal Communications Commission. Reach out to their hotline and tell them your story in a short and dense manner. In your own country, the authority might hold different names. You could contact your officials for further information. The more information you give to the authority, the easier they will be tracking down the scammers.

Some types of calls scams

The phone scammers are operating from all over the world. Although they are outside your country, they always have ways to overcome the barriers. They’d use VPN and VOIP to pretend to be someone in a different location. There are some modus operandi that you need to notice.

IRS staffs

The IRS will never call you out of the blue. If they claim to be IRS agents, just hang up the phone.

Impostors

These scammers impersonate your neighbors, old friends, long-distance relatives, public figures, or whoever is in your interests. They appear to be someone in your social circle. Of course, while they call, you can use your PC or laptop to do a quick cross-check online. You will Identify Spam Calls immediately.

SSN scams

These scammers will tell you that your SSN is error or lost. They’d ask you to give them social security numbers. Keep in mind that the SSA staff won’t call you and ask your SSN since they’ve already known about it.

Travel agencies

Travel agencies inform you that you’ve received a free ticket. But they need your SSN or credit card number to verify. Never give out your sensitive information. If necessary, you could challenge them to give you their address and you visit them to process the “free gift”.

Debt collectors

They’d pretend to be debt collectors. But there’s an easy way to Identify Spam Calls from these guys. The debt collectors must be able to provide the information you can verify. You won’t want to waste your time with the so-called debt collector who doesn’t know the amount you owned. If you have doubts, you could verify their identity with the official agency or institution.