Tips to prevent phone fraud and scams in 2019

Here is an example of a situation that happens quite often. Your phone starts to vibrate and ring. You look at the screen, but there is no caller ID, or it says “Private”. To this, people react differently. They either ignore the call or take it. The latter option, however, is risky because if the person or a group of people use a private number, they usually have something to hide. It is essential and vital to know who’s calling me when my phone rings. Is it mom, dad, your fiancé or an angry customer, knowing the answer to a simple question ‘who called me?’ provides reassurance and safety.

Not everything is as it seems

Phone fraud is more common than you think. Roughly 4-6 billion USD losses occur in the US alone, due to telephone scams. Even numbers in your contact list provide a threat.

It is recommended to avoid taking calls from foreign countries. If you ask yourselves that very same question ‘whose number is this?’ and have any doubts about the nature and origin of this call, better avoid contact. If there is an urgent need for communication, they will likely call again or find other channels to get in touch with you.

Nevertheless, there is a thing called spoofing. Hackers use specialised software and call you, making your phone display a different number. So it could be an individual with evil intentions, but your phone indicates that as grandpa or co-worker… Be aware of the scams and thoughtfully prepare for their prevention.

Most essential tools

Being able to do reverse phone lookup and using a reverse phone number lookup tool is crucial to your security. Some numbers are used solely by hackers and wrong-doers, so when you enter it into the tool, it will display the past interactions between the caller and those who took those calls and contacted with them. Others belong to telemarketers, businesses, maybe your local cable company etc. All of that will be clear once you use a phone lookup tool. Essentially, the tool is a large circle of people and businesses who exchange information about callers and try to keep each other safe.

Some phone and number lookup tools even have extensive databases and can provide you with information about the owner of the number which you inquire about.

There also are numerous call blocking tools. Call blocking allows you to prevent annoying, harassing or unwanted callers from ever getting in touch with you. Turn on auto-reply to leave them a message when you are on vacation or block those spammy messages from the local store. Call blocking is also nearly as effective as phone number search on phone number lookup tools.

However, knowing the people who are calling you and not just blocking them allows you to react better and keep not only yourselves but everyone around much safer. A small inquiry and a little bit of digging would enable you to warn people about fraudsters and scammers.

All in all

Use phone number lookup, try to block unwanted callers and only answer the phone if you are sure about the person who is calling you. There is always a risk when answering the phone, and sometimes it is just not worth taking it. With whocallingyou anyone can know their risks and feel a lot safer. Now that is a great way to protect yourselves from phone fraud and scams!