TOP SCAM TRENDS IN THE U.S
Fraudsters have been taking advantage of rising electricity bills to prey on consumers by stealing personal and financial information. The tactics they use are the following: offers to lower utility bills, threats to shut off electricity, or offers for federal program assistance.
According to research source, Phone utility scams grew 109% in 2016, and have seen triple digit growth in 2017. +750% Neighbor Scam Most Consistent Scam of the Year: Utility Scam A new phone scam tactic called the “Neighbor Scam” has emerged in recent months, and according to data source, it has surged 750% since the beginning of the year.
With this new tactic, which has been widely adopted since early 2016, unsolicited robocalls are the #1 source of consumer complaints to the Federal Communications Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission has reported that robocall complaints have hit an all time high in 2017. Americans received up to 30 billion robo calls in 2017, research has found that robo calls have increased by 76% since 2016.
fraudsters use Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) software to mimic (also known as spoofing) the first six digits of a user’s phone number -- the area code and the following three digits -- to trick consumers into thinking a nearby friend or business is calling.
Most Consistent Scam of the Year: Utility Scam
Based on an estimated 2 billion calls flagged as spam by our service since the beginning of the year, research estimates that one in three user reports reference the Neighbor Scam.
Fraudsters have been taking advantage of rising electricity bills to prey on consumers by stealing personal and financial information. The tactics they use are the following: offers to lower utility bills, threats to shut off electricity, or offers for federal program assistance. According to research, Phone utility scams grew 109% in 2016, and have seen triple digit growth in 2017. Research has found that August was the month robo calls reached an all time high.
10 Worst area code offending callers
1. 202 (Washington, D.C.) 2. 614 (Columbus, OH) 3. 469 (Fort Worth, TX) 4. 312 (Chicago, IL) 5. 817 (Forth Worth, TX) 6. 832 (Houston, TX) 7. 210 (San Antonio, TX) 8. 281 (Houston, TX) 9. 909 (San Bernadino, CA) 10. 214 (Dallas, TX)
How to protect yourself
Robocalls are not going away. That means you need to protect yourself.
Get a Call Blocker CPR Call Blocker has 5000 of these fending callers already pre-programmed in the block list. You can add up to a further 1500 by pressing the block now button.
Don’t answer calls with an unfamiliar phone number. Let it go to voicemail and call back if it’s legit.
Don’t trust caller ID. While it’s a good way to screen calls, you cannot rely on it to guarantee the validity of the phone number displayed.
Don’t follow the instructions to press 1 or 2 to get removed from their call list. That doesn’t work. It simply tells them that they’ve reached a working phone number and you’re likely to get more spam calls.
Never call back and don’t engage with them. Telephone swindlers do this for a living. They know how to get you to give them your personal information. Once you do that, you can’t take it back.