Hang up!: Three ways to spot a 'scammy' phone call

Technology is advancing at a fast pace, but the telephone remains key to the activities of scammers. They use aggressive sales tactics, false promises and threats to get people to part with their hard-earned money.

In 2021, of the 1.8 million fraud complaints received by the Federal Trade Commission, 36 per cent were from people who got swindled through a phone call, according to AARP, an insurance interest group based in the US. Because this type of scam has been around for so long, there are several ways to immediately spot one. Watch out for these three signs:

Faux government/ big tech workers

These scammers would call you pretending to be people who work for a government agency, public utility or a major tech firm like Google or Microsoft. What you should know is that these companies and organizations have no business calling you unless they have first communicated to you through other means like email or post, or unless you have contacted them, the AARP warns.

Unsolicited sales pitch

Sometimes, the scammers would call to pitch products or services with juicy terms. But you should know that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. According to Espresso.com, these offers may include free product trials, cash prizes, cheap travel packages, medical devices, preapproved loans, debt reduction, and low-risk, high-return investments. Please don’t fall for these.

Robo calls

These are automated calls from companies you have not authorized to contact you. You should immediately hang up and dismiss such calls for what they are, scams! However, not all of them are scams as automated calls are permitted for some informational or non-commercial purposes.

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