It has happened to most people who own a phone, whether it is mobile or landline: they receive unsolicited calls from unknown numbers. Unfortunately, some of these calls might actually be scams. Not only are they a nuisance and a waste of time, but countless victims have also lost money to these fraudsters, ranging from a few dollars to as huge as their life savings.
In the past, scammers would impersonate other people while sounding authentic in an attempt to retrieve vital information or extract money from the victim. For example, some schemes involve perpetrators pretending to be a representative of a government agency, such as the IRS or FBI. Such impersonation scams have caused more than $30 million in taxpayer loss.
With the advancement of technology, it has also become easier for scammers to try to dupe unwitting victims. They can now make use of robocall or a computerized auto-dialer that delivers a prerecorded message. According to the Federal Communications Commission, in 2016, more than 2 billion robocalls were made every month.
There are plenty of ways to protect oneself from phone scams. One of the most effective is a reverse phone lookup, a service that determines the information associated with a phone number. Not only can the full name of the owner be found out, even social media information, address history, and other records available publicly can be tracked down. With such a tool at hand, background checks can be conducted first before responding in any way to phone scams.
Visit the Check People website to learn about the services it offers in background check, including reverse phone lookup.