The Solutions To Scam Calls You Have Had to Put Up With

Scam Calls

The Federal Trade Commission released its databook for phone call complaints across the country for the year 2020; the statistics showed that Alabama residents are frequent targets of unsolicited telemarketing calls, robocalls, and scam phone calls.

Residents of northern and central Alabama are more likely to be targeted by imposters offering a phony warranty or protection plans, debt relief, computer, and technical support. Less often, the imposters attempt to befuddle unsuspecting residents with congratulatory calls and messages on lottery winnings and vacation to exotic destinations. The end goal of these calls is to steal personal and financial information and swindle residents. 

Generally, residents’ primary response to the nuisance is to list their number on the federal do not call registry, wait for thirty-one days, and get peace of mind. However, this measure only stops calls from legitimate telemarketers. It does not remotely prevent scammers from hounding you on the phone or stop robocalls and send spam texts.  

While recipients of these scam calls may file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, the Commission cannot respond to individual complaints. The Commission can, however, compel your mobile carrier to respond to your complaint within 31 days. This is useful if previous attempts to complain to the service provider were unsuccessful.

But residents can do one better with a reverse phone search. This service works like when you perform a criminal background search, but instead of a name or a fingerprint card, you only need a phone number. After all, scammers will not tell you their real name on a phone call, but they leave a phone number you can backtrack.  

Every person who purchases a phone number in Alabama must provide a valid I.D. showing their personal and contact information. Mobile carriers store this information on phone directories, which are public records. So, when you perform a phone search for an unknown caller, the search engine retrieves user information from the phone directory. Then, it presents you with the individual’s details, such as full name, age, gender, and address. This information is generally enough to verify the identity of your caller.

However, persons who wish to take the search further may use People Finder to get more detailed information such as social media profiles, criminal records, traffic records, business/professional affiliations. If an unknown caller is leery and inappropriate on the phone, you can also use a phone number search to determine if the person is a registered sex offender.

Furthermore, because phone numbers are associated with the user’s listed address, you also use a street address to find the phone number of lost contacts. While all these methods to find unknown callers are legal, Alabama laws prohibit using the information obtained via public records search to harass or defraud any person.

When you unmask the person behind the nuisance calls, forward a complaint to local authorities. If you do not wish to involve law enforcement, you may send a strongly worded letter to the person informing them that you will take civil actions if they continue to disturb you. Most scammers will cease to contact you and remove your number from their list.

Of course, all your troubles may not go away if a scammer uses a VoIP number. Because of the anonymity that VoIP services afford users, scammers prefer this method over regular mobile or landline numbers. Nevertheless, VoIP phone scams are not infallible, even though they are relatively more difficult to detect and bar. Still, follow the FTC user guidelines on online security and block potential scam calls from VoIP numbers.