Top 7 Ways to protect yourself form scam calls on your Mobile Device

I just happened to call my parents at the right moment. Worried that my dad wasn’t picking up his cell phone, I tried my mom’s cell which she picked up immediately.

“Dad is on the phone with someone because our Apple ID has been hacked,” she frantically told me while telling my dad that I was on the phone. In the background, I could hear my dad shouting at my mom to get me off the phone which was highly suspicious for parents who always love hearing from me.

Following an extremely busy beginning to what was assumed to a regular call, I heard that my parents were all going to be scammed using a computer hack. How on earth did this occur? My mother and daddy know how to protect themselves from scams!

My father answered a call from an unidentified number on his mobile phone out of a caller claiming to be Apple support. She proceeded to attempt and find private information out of him to get his PC.

My father was just a few keystrokes away from letting her access his computer. These activities might have emptied their bank account and led to identity theft. Luckily, my telephone interrupted the harm she had been going to unleash.

With 1,855 robocalls put every 2nd last year, my parents are not alone. Their story could have occurred to some of our friends family and nearest and dearest. Almost 30 million people have been scammed from the 58 billion robocalls made annually.

Scams and undesirable robocalls will be the One complaint to the FCC. They cost Americans over $10 billion annually. With coronavirus worries, scammers are preying on customers’ rising health and fiscal anxieties. Americans have lost more than $80 million into COVID-related scams annually and it is only getting worse! Coronavirus scams increased 70 percent from only May to June.

7 Ways to protect yourself from scam calls

But how do you protect yourself from scam calls? Here are 7 pointers to help thwart robocall strikes on your mobile device that may result in telemarketing fraud.

1. Be Skeptical

Technology makes it easy for scammers to fake caller ID information. These days they often disguise communication from an unknown source as being from a known, trusted source. This is called spoofing. Spoofing allows scammers to mimic real names and phone numbers of individuals to make the number looking familiar increasing the likelihood that you’ll answer the phone.

Protect yourself from scam calls by always being skeptical. If you don’t know the name or the phone number of the person calling, don’t answer.

2. Hang up on robocalls

Sometimes I have gotten a call in which the caller ID pops up with the title of the children’ college, a physician’s office I have seen, or another famous location. Bright scammers telephone numbers in hopes we will answer the telephone out of a caller we might understand.

This makes it hard to differentiate between a valid telephone versus a robocall at the split second that you are taking a look at your telephone deciding whether to reply or not.

It happens! But when you realize it is a robocall rather than somebody you truly need to speak to, shield yourself from scam calls from hanging up. However, at that split second in which you’re attempting to opt to reply or not, you could always allow the phone go to voicemail. In case it ends up to be a true telephone, then simply return the telephone.
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3. Protect yourself from scams with help from your wireless provider

T-Mobile, Metro from T-Mobile, and Sprint customers automatically get Scam Shield, a pair of safeguards that will help safeguard them from scammers. Scam Shield prevents individuals with free scam identification and penalizing for each client.

Scam Shield also contains attributes like free, improved Caller ID which provides you more info about who is calling. T-Mobile clients can protect their private information with a free next amount that retains your private number private. Clients may also benefit from a completely free number change and completely free ID monitoring.

Scam Shield is designed to Prevent scammers in their Paths using 6 Shield tools Which work to Give information about who Is calling:

• Free scam identification and scam blocking — Suspicious calls are flagged, and customers can turn on scam blocking to never see those calls again.
• Free, Enhanced Caller ID— If we know who’s calling, you’ll know who is calling. And with new improvements, you’ll know when the number is verified as coming from a real person or business.
• Free Second Number— T-Mobile PROXY is a second phone number to keep your personal number personal.
• Free Number Change— If your personal number become a spam magnet, get a clean slate with a new number.
• Free Scam Shield App— The central spot to activate these new protections and, for an extra charge, unlock more advanced call controls. Sprint customers now get free protections — previously an added charge — in the upgraded Call Screener app.
• Free Be ID Aware Service— Get ID monitoring and alerts for 12 months from the experts at McAfee, available for a limited time.

4. Don’t give away any information

Scammers function in hopes you will provide them advice so that the AARP states that your very best defense would be to tell them. They counsel,”If they attempt to validate your name, do not inform them. Should they ask if your partner is home, do not answer. Should they wish to confirm your speech, then hang up”

Any little bit of advice given out — your title, address, title of your partner, etc. — may be used to steal your money, individuality, or cause additional injury.
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5. Educate yourself about recent scams

Protect yourself from scam calls from receiving the newest ideas and suggestions about scams in the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The Consumer Info Scams segment on the FTC site can allow you to learn about the latest scams and comprehend potential warning signals. To get this information you may go straight to their site or register to possess FTC email updates delivered right to your inbox.

6. Put yourself on the national do not call registry

The National Do Not Call Registry provides you a choice about getting telemarketing calls. You are able to register both your house and mobile phone for free but it is not an ideal gatekeeper. If you get an unwanted call following your amount has been on the National Do Not Call Registry for 31 days, then you can examine it to the FTC.
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7. Report scams

Should you see a scam. Your reports help safeguard others from scams, the FTC and other law enforcement research scams, and attract crooks to justice.