As if we need another way for scammers to take advantage of us, here comes another one that you may have experienced recently.  The Ulster County Sheriff's Office reported this most recent scam way of foiling people over the phone using "Caller ID".

According to the Ulster County District Attorney’s Division of Consumer Affairs, a practice known as “spoofing”, has been making the rounds. This is where scammers  can deliberately falsify the telephone number and/or name relayed on the caller ID information on your phone in order to disguise their true identity.

·Don’t give out personal information in response to an incoming call. Identity thieves often pose as representatives of banks, credit card companies, utilities, creditors or government agencies (such as the IRS) to get people to reveal their personal financial information.

·If you get an inquiry from a company or government agency seeking such information, don’t provide it. Instead, hang up and call the number on your account statement or the company or government agency’s website to find out if the entity that supposedly called you actually needs the requested information.

·Please let the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) know about ID spoofers by calling 1-888-CALL-FCC or filing a complaint at www.fcc.gov/complaints.

Consumer Affairs can be reached at:
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/about/contact/

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