TIP: Don’t Answer Phone Calls From These 5 Area Codes

TIP: Don’t Answer Phone Calls From These 5 Area Codes

 

Scammers are known for using illegal “spoofing” techniques."

Spoofing is when a scammer disguises their identity by manipulating the information transmitted to your caller ID display. Scammers often spoof their numbers to get through phone systems that block unknown callers.

Social Catfish, an online identity verification service, warns that scammers often use local area codes to make themselves seem legitimate and trick people into answering the phone.

There are five area codes you should be wary of, according to Social Catfish: 268 (Antigua and Barbuda), 876 (Jamaica), 473 (Grenada and Carriacou), 649 (Turks and Caicos Islands) and 284 (British Virgin Islands).

You should ignore phone calls coming from numbers with those area codes, since all of them have been tied to various types of fraud.

If you do answer the phone, do not engage with the caller. Instead, simply hang up.

Anyone who’s unsure whether an unfamiliar phone number is legitimate can easily verify a caller’s identity through an online search.

The FCC urges anyone who receives a suspicious phone call from an unfamiliar number, or believes they’ve fallen victim to a spoofing scam, to report it.