Help! I'm Not a Geek: SPAM PHONE CALLS

Monday, July 29, 2019

SPAM PHONE CALLS

I know I am getting more and more SPAM phone calls and so I bet you are too. It used to be that whoever it is that does the SPAM calling could only call home phones, but they have figured out how to reach cell phones. You can block numbers on your cell, but they just seem to get another number and call again.

antique wall phone

I have learned that you DO NOT have to answer ANY calls. In fact that may be a good strategy. Your friends will leave a message (or you will see their names pop up on the phone) and you can pick it up or call them back. If you don't recognize the number why take a chance at being scammed?

Some scammers make you very afraid and you might (by accident) give them information that you do not want them to have. If you do not answer and it is a legitimate number they will leave a message and you can get back to them in a calm thoughtful way.

There are a few other helpful things, but I have found that they don't work ALL of the time. I have ATT and I downloaded an app called "Call Protect". It will notify me if it thinks that a certain call is SPAM by putting a message across the screen where it usually says the name of the caller. It says ATT possible SPAM call. When one of those comes up I either hang up or let it ring until they get my answer message.

Here are steps recommended by CMIT solutions:

Add your number to the Do Not Call Registry which is a Federal list of phone numbers. This is especially effective with landlines.
Block Unfamiliar Numbers
Use Do Not Disturb. The calls will still come in, but they will not interrupt what you are doing. You can filter that so that people you want to call can make contact with you.
Hang up as soon as you know that it is a robocall. If you engage with the robot who does the call it will move on to a real person and it is harder to hang up! Something that I had not thought of is this. "Be careful what you say, too; even automated robocalls can ask a variety of natural-sounding questions like “Can you hear me?” and if you answer “Yes,” that voice signature can be used at a later date to authorize fraudulent charges via telephone."
Look into Apps that block Robocalls.