Phone scams are a part of a broader menace, communication scam. This type of scam uses phone calls, text messages and other mobile communication types to illegally acquire money from the customers of a phone service provider. Sometimes they attack the phone service providers themselves by using their services without paying. 

Common types of phone scams come in the form of calls and text messages with malicious intent disguised as a legitimate communication avenue from these service providers. In this post, we shall be taking pains to explore how to spot and report phone scams. 

What Are The Most Common Types of Phone Scams?

Phone scam types are numerous, but the most common types of phone scams are listed below: 

1. Impersonation Scams

In this type of phone scam, fraudsters or scammers assume the identity of a legitimate company like your bank, the revenue collection service or a utility company. They try to gain your trust and use psychological techniques to manipulate you into giving away your money or granting them access to your personal information.

2. Lottery/Charity Scams

In this type of phone scam, you are reached out to by a scammer pretending to be an official from a lottery company claiming you have won a certain amount of substantial money from their lottery and need to pay out some money to access the prize. Some claim they have access to some sure bet or lottery winnings and ask you to pay some money to guarantee your winning. 

For charity scams, scammers try to appeal to your personal sentiments to get you to send out some donations to some phony humanitarian efforts. 

3. Loan Scams

This type of phone scam usually has scammers pretending to be representatives of some legitimate loan app or company offering some fantastic loans with a low interest rate that needs a little money to access. They give you some links to click on to access them. These tactics are used either to steal your money, steal your identity or important personal information. 

4. Tech Support Scams

One of the most common phone scams, this has scammers pretend to be support technicians from your phone company or it's affiliate and claim that you have some certain issues on your phone and they are reaching out to help solve them before it becomes a problem.

The real aim they have is to have you grant them remote access to your phone or mobile device to manipulate or steal your personal information or clear out your financial assets with you being oblivious to their acts. 

5. Threats and Extortion Scams

This type of phone scam happens when scammers threaten you with things like arrest, deportation and more except you pay them money or grant them access to your personal information. This is a form of blackmail and many fall victim to this type of scam because they have plenty to hide  

6. Emergency/Grandparent Scams

This type of scam usually has scammers calling you impersonating a family member and asking you to send some money for an emergency. The mostly play on the victim's fear and insecurities about his family and loved ones. 

7. Smishing

Another highly common phone scam, smishing is a play on the words “SMS phishing”. This type of phone scam has scammers sending victims fake text messages trying to trick them into clicking on a malicious link that can grant them untethered access to your financial assets or personal information. 

8. Student Loan Forgiveness Scams

Here scammers cash in on the fact that many people are owing large amounts of student loans they wish could go away. They then set up fake student loan forgiveness programmes asking for some money in return for wishing their loans away, some also capitalise on gaining the victim's personal information.

9. Credit Card Scams

Here scammers play on people's ignorance, calling them and claiming that there's a problem with their credit card, asking for their credit card number to rectify the issue. If you indulge them, they'll steal your money and personal information.

10. Romance Scams

Another highly popular scam, romance scam has fraudsters use online dating or social media to build fake relationships and then manipulate you into sending them money. They usually gain the victim's trust over time, preying on their sexual desires or affections and emotions to extort money from them. 

How do you Spot a Phone Scam?

Spotting phone scams may seem Sisyphean, but it can be as easy as ABC. All you need to do is maintain vigilance and not let yourself get greedy or manipulated. You can spot a phone scam through the following ways:

1. When the caller or person reaching out asks you for your credit card details or other payment options for “shipping and handling” a product, understand that they are scammers trying to get to you. No legitimate company would ask you for sensitive information like that. 
2. When the person uses threats against you if you don’t comply with their request. He is a scammer. Most times they even threaten to get you arrested. 
3. You know it is a phone scam if the call starts with a prerecorded message. This is popularly referred to as a “robocall”. 
4. If the caller claims you have a virus on your smartphone or computer and/or requests to log in to your device. They are surely scammers trying to gain access to your personal information. 
5. If the person reaching out claims to be a friend or relative in need of money, demanding it as fast as possible, not  giving you any time to think or contact others, you have a red flag that you are in communication with a scammer. They always play on your fears or sense of urgency. 
6. You know it is a scam when you get a claim that you have been specially selected for something you never heard of that you participated in that is bringing forth rewards too good to be true. 
7. If you notice someone using high-pressure sales tactics and “limited-time” offers, that is a sure flag that you are being phone scammed.
8. When the person reaching out to you is reluctant to answer questions about the business or the offer they are presenting to you, known for sure that he is a fraud. 
9. You also can spot a phone scam when the person at the other end requests that you “confirm your personal information”. This is an easy tactic many people fall for. Do not let yourself be caught off guard. It is a scam.
10. You also know it is a scam when the person communicating with you requests payment by means other than credit card this can include cash, gift card, wire transfer or private couriers. It is done this way to make it hard for you to trace your money back to them 

With the above you can spot a phone scam and keep yourself safe from falling victim to them.

What to do if you get a scam call?

If you get a scam call, you should ensure you never give out your personal information and hang up the phone immediately. Don't just stop at that, you also need to block their number through your phone. You could call your phone service provider to report the number or law enforcement.

You can also get a spam call filter app installed on your phone. 

How to block scam calls 

You can easily block scam calls through your phone app on your device. On the app, click on the options on the phone number and select “block number”. You can also mark the calls as spam, which can help block future calls from that number.  Sometimes, scammers will call you with other numbers, you can stop this by installing a spam filter app on your device.

Some countries offer a National Do Not Call Registry which may not outrightly stop all unsolicited calls, but can help reduce them. 

You could also set your phone to silence unknown callers that call. On iPhones, go to Settings, tap on Phone, tap on Silence Unknown Callers and toggle it on.

On Android, navigate to Settings, tap on Apps, tao on Phone, select Calls and tap Silence Unknown Callers and enable it. 

You could also talk to your telecom service provider, asking them to help you block calls from a particular number. 

How To Report a scam call

When trying to report a phone scam, ensure you gather all the evidence you can including screenshots, recordings and more of your communications with the scammer. You can then contact your local police station and file a report about the scam call, providing the evidence you have and the scammer's number. 

You can also report your phone scam to your mobile service provider also presenting the compiled evidence. 

You can take it up a notch by reporting to the body in charge of regulating communications in your country. In Nigeria, reports of this nature can be directed to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) via the toll-free number: 622. 

You can also report through the NCC Consumer Portal at https://consumer.ncc.gov.ng/ and fill the complaint form. 

You also have the opportunity of sending an email to incident@cert.gov.ng or a message to +234 (0) 7044642378. 

How to avoid phone scams 

Looking to avoid phone scams, you need to do the following:

1. Do not answer calls from unknown numbers. 
2. If you do, do not let anyone pressure you on the phone to do something you'd rather not do.
3. You can always hang up if you feel like you are being scammed. 
4. Do not click links or provide your personal information in a rush. 
5. Never share your personal information with anyone, even those you know.
6. Understand that real organisations would never ask for any personal information over the phone, they'd ask that you visit their nearest branch. 
7. Use spam blocking apps to keep scammers out of your device.
8. Report suspicious scam calls to the authorities. 
9. Be aware of these scams and never take them for granted. 
10. Stay informed if the latest phone scam activities and educate your family and friends.
11. Trust your gut and stop all communications if something feels off. It is better to be safe than sorry.

All the above are sure ways you can avoid phone scams. 

Final words

We have checked out all there is to the subject matter, focusing on how to spot and report phone scams. We hope you can now better spot and report these incidents to the authorities, keeping yourself safe. 

If you are a businessperson or an organisation in need of veritable tools to keep your personal and corporate phone lines free from phone scammers, reach out to us at Youverify. 

We offer business solutions specifically tailored to suit your needs and keep you safe from fraud and other issues like this menace of phone scams. 

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