Telemarketers aren’t simply the annoying dinner-interrupters they used to be.  Things have changed. There are fraudsters out there on the other end of these calls who can go so far as to manipulate recordings of your voice, then use those recordings to take over your accounts. They use programs that “spoof” phone numbers – making your caller ID show fake numbers that appear to be cell phones, local calls, 800 numbers; they  even spoof your own phone number – all to get you to answer the phone and talk to them.

The FTC advises you to hang up on these calls, don’t speak to them.  But, this advice is a couple of years old.  Did you know those phantom calls, the one’s you answer and no one is on the other end, are the first step for many of these fraudsters? According  All Tech Considered author AArti Shahni, just answering those calls can put you on a list of live bait for scammers:

Here’s an experience some of us have had. The phone rings. You pick it up and say “Hello. Hello. Helloooo.” But nobody answers. It turns out there could be someone on the other end of the line: an automated computer system that’s calling your number — and tens of thousands of others — to build a list of humans to target for theft.

Collecting numbers that reach live people is the first step.  After your number is established as a working number, next come Continue reading →