DON’T LET ROBO CALLS Steal Your Season

WRITTEN BY RICK COBELLO, PRESIDENT GLOBAL CYBERSECURITY SOLUTIONS LLC

How many times have you received a call about an extended warranty that you don’t have or that free Marriott vacation?

This time of year, it is especially important to be vigilant due to tax filing time. Many scams exist during the tax period. “Robo calls are the greatest consumer complaint to the FCC with over 200,000 complaints each year—around 60 percent of all the complaints we receive. Some private analysts estimate that U.S. consumers received nearly 4 billion robocalls per month in 2018. Unfortunately, advancements in technology make it cheap and easy to make massive numbers of robocalls and to "spoof" caller ID information to hide a caller's true identity.” (Federal Communications Commission)

SPOOFING — WHAT IS IT?

Spoofing is a method used by both legitimate and illegitimate parties to make it seem as if a phone call is coming from a certain number when it’s actually coming from somewhere else.

For businesses, spoofing can be a practical and necessary activity… EXAMPLES OF LEGAL SPOOFING

Spoofing is usually legal when the person making the call has the legal right to use the spoofed number, even when calling from a different number. Examples of legal spoofing include: • contractors hired by a company to make calls can spoof by displaying their client’s business number on the caller ID instead of the telemarketers’ own phone number. • A business with a toll-free number may spoof by displaying their toll-free number on the caller ID instead of the internal line. • As a professional, you have the legal freedom to spoof your office number when making business calls from your personal device. Calls like you usually get from your doctor.

ILLEGAL SPOOFING IS EASIER TO DETECT.

Spoofing is almost always illegal when the spoofer doesn’t have legal rights to the number being impersonated. A few examples of illegal spoofing include: • Deception: This is when the caller spoofs with the goal of hiding their real number and they don’t care which number they use for the spoof. • Impersonation: This is when the caller intentionally spoofs a believable number that the receiver will be more likely to pick-up or trust.

• Neighborhood Spoofing:

Neighborhood spoofing is similar to impersonation, but imposters attempt to mimic a number from a local company or individual.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

• Don't answer calls from unknown numbers. If you answer such a call, hang up immediately. • You may not be able to tell right away if an incoming call is spoofed. Be aware: Caller ID showing a "local" number does not necessarily mean it is a local caller. • If you answer the phone and the caller - or a recording - asks you to hit a button to stop getting the calls, you should just hang up. Scammers often use this trick to identify potential targets.

• Do not respond to any questions, especially those that can be answered with "Yes." • Never give out personal information such as account numbers, Social Security numbers, mother's maiden names, passwords, or other identifying information in response to unexpected calls or if you are at all suspicious. • If you get an inquiry from someone who says they represent a company or a government agency, hang up and call the phone number on your account statement, in the phone book, or on the company's or government agency's website to verify the authenticity of the request. • Use caution if you are being pressured for information immediately. • If you have a voice mail account with your phone service, be sure to set a password for it. Some voicemail services are preset to allow access if you call in from your own phone number. A hacker could spoof your home phone number and gain access to your voice mail if you do not set a password. • Talk to your phone company about call blocking tools they may have and check into apps that you can download to your mobile device to block unwanted calls. • If you use robocall-blocking technology already, it often helps to let that company know which numbers are producing unwanted calls so they can help block those calls for you and others. • To block telemarketing calls, register your number on the Do Not Call List. Legitimate telemarketers consult the list to avoid calling both landline and wireless phone numbers on the list. Register your phone numbers with the Do Not Call List by calling 1-888-382-1222. It won't make a huge difference because scammers don't care about rules. But it might cut down on some legitimate solicitors. There are many apps for your phone that may help. Many of these apps require a monthly fee. This is an app that has some reasonable success, and it has a no cost version… HIYA: Hiya identifies calls you want and blocks numbers you want to avoid, and comes with options like auto-blocking and reverse phone lookup. To receive premium features there is a monthly charge. There are many other apps, but this is a start to determine your individual needs. In 2019, the median loss with a robo call was $700.00 with many instances of much more. Make privacy and security part of you cybersecurity plan. Protect yourself and your information... Don’t be a victim!

(The software mentioned is representative of available call blocking software. The author has no vested interest or received any compensation for mentioning the software)

For more information:

GlobalCybersecuritySolutionsLLC.com SF