Scammers everywhere are waiting for any opportunities to attack and take advantage of people and businesses from all different backgrounds, across sectors, and through any kind of communication channels. While online scams are on the rise in this rapidly changing environment, many criminals still rely on the old fashion phone scams to trick their victims. With more and more people using smartphones today, the threat of phone scams are now continuing to evolve and it is getting more sophisticated each day. Knowing this trend, it is very important for companies to identify the type of phone scams and be aware on how to mitigate all the threats to reduce the business and commercial loss from phone scams.

Be aware of any imposter, phishing, and predatory robocalls

There are many types of phone scams that you need to identify to prevent any loss from these threats. One of the most common phone scams that usually target the victims is the imposter scams, which can come in many forms and target many people from different backgrounds and demographics. Imposters are criminals who are pretending to be someone you know or a representative from an organization that you can trust in order to trick you to give them money. While phishing is a fraudulent practice, in which the criminals are calling you to pretend to be someone from a reputable company and direct you to reveal personal information such as passwords or bank details. Another type of popular phone scams today is the predatory robocalls, in which scammers are using prerecorded or autodialed calls to connect with their victims without being given the permission to actually contact them to offer fake deals that can lead to fraud activities.

Screen unfamiliar calls and block repeat offenders to avoid contact with scammers

The best way to avoid phone scam is to prevent yourself from connecting with the scammers in the first place by screening unfamiliar calls and simply not answering the calls from the numbers that you do not recognize. If it is an important call, the caller will leave a message or contact you through another medium of communication. Setting up a do not call registry can also help you eliminate the unwanted calls and therefore reduce the risk of engaging with phone scammers. You can also avoid fraud activities by blocking repeat offenders so that they will not call you again. It is also important to report to the authority if you experience any phone scam to prevent the same attack happening to other people.

Hang up and don't follow any instructions from suspicious calls

If you happened to answer an unfamiliar call that you do not want to answer, it is best for you to hang up and end the call right away. And if you feel suspicious when engaging with someone over the phone, especially when they try to drive you in doing some actions, you need to always be aware and never follow any instruction that they give you. Do not push any numbers or share any detailed information to anyone if you are not 100% sure of whom you are talking too. It is always better to be safe than sorry.

Phone scams are real and always evolving. In order to prevent these threats and mitigate all the risks involved, it is very important to stay informed with the latest and most accurate information about phone scams. Implementing secure technology such as CPaaS Indonesia can also reduce the risk for your organization to engage with phone scammers. Providing features such as STIR/SHAKEN, businesses can examine the caller ID and compare it to a known list of IDs and therefore reduce the risk of phone scams.  Like other types of scams, phone scams can cost you time, money, and even your identity. Therefore it is very important for you to always stay alert.