05/19/2017
We at Green’s Tax Service have recently been alerted to the fact that our office phone number has been used as part of, at least one, case of phone spoofing. Let me first state that we will NEVER ask for your credit card information over the phone. We never have and we never will. Now as for what phone spoofing is:
Spoofing is effectively falsifying a piece of identifying information, like a bogus return email address. “Phone spoofing” relates to the number that shows up on caller ID. It’s used to trick people into picking up calls they otherwise wouldn’t (and get around the National Do Not Call Registry). For a shady caller from outside the area – and often the country – a local number is less likely to raise suspicion.
The real target of the scam is the person on the receiving end of the spoofed call. In the past year, Attorneys General in Arkansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island (among others) have all issued warnings related to phone spoofing scams.
If the recipients do answer the calls, they’re treated to a lovely conversation with telemarketers, debt collectors and/or scammers. And, as with most sketchy callers, they don’t leave a message. If the recipients are curious, all they have to go on is the spoofed (false) number that appeared in their caller ID. The result: numerous angry “return” calls to the wrong person. In effect, the real owner of the spoofed number is simply collateral damage.
Spoofing technology is unfortunately cheap and widely available. As a result, anyone with a smartphone can be a victim, though the scam works just as well on landlines.
We ALWAYS recommend protecting your information whether it is personal or financial. If you receive a call that you believe to be from a legitimate business, and you feel you need to continue the conversation, Hang up. Then call the number you KNOW is associated with that business and speak with someone you KNOW at that business.
