- Terrorism and Identity Theft
- Who Are Identity Thieves?
- What Do Identity Thieves Do?
- College Students and Identity Theft
- Malware and Macs
- Dumpster Diving
- You Are Only As Safe As the Places That Have Your Information
- They Should Know Better
- Hackers
- Identity Theft Risk in Old Gaming Consoles
- The Drug Connection
- Phishing
- Federal Express Phishing Scam
- Newegg Phishing Scam
- Former Good Advice
- More Good Advice to Avoid Becoming a Victim of Phishing
- The Dangers of Aquaman
- Iron Man 3
- Nude Photos of Carla Bruni
- Debit Card Phishing Scam
- Another Debit Card Phishing Scam
- Phishing with a Large Net
- Phishing Around the World
- Spearphishing
- How Do You Know That You Have Become a Victim of Phishing?
- Reloading
- Identity Theft Through Internet Phone Calls
- What Do Kim Kardashian and Michelle Obama Have in Common?
- USB Sticks and Identity Theft
- Internet of Things
- What You Can Do to Prevent Identity Theft
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Identity Theft Through Internet Phone Calls
Identity thieves have used unsolicited telephone calls in which they trick people into revealing personal information, such as credit card numbers or Social Security numbers, for many years. This has proven to be lucrative, but time-consuming. Now, however, some identity thieves are using modern technology such as automatic dialing software and Internet telephone services to make huge numbers of automated robocalls around the world in just a few moments. A typical scam using this technology involves a call purportedly from a person’s credit card company telling him that his card needs to be reactivated and that the person receiving the call needs to punch in his credit card number. It is also important to note that some of these identity thieves also take advantage of a technique called “spoofing” by which the caller ID of the person receiving the call will appear to show a legitimate source for the call, such as the person’s bank, when, in fact, the call is originating with an identity thief anywhere in the world.
It is easy to identify a scam robocall. All robocalls, with the exception of those from charities or politicians, are illegal, so if you receive one that indicates it is from your bank or a credit card company, it is a scam. In addition, when you receive a call, you can never be sure, regardless of what your caller ID might say, as to the identity of the person calling you; therefore, you should never provide personal information over the phone to anyone whom you have not called. If you do receive a call that appears to be legitimate requesting personal information, just hang up and call the real entity to find out whether the call was legitimate.