How to spot phone call scams

Have you been getting a lot of scam phone calls lately? I sure have. On both the land line and my business cell phone. Some callers claim that I’m being sued by the government or that I’m under investigation. Others want me to think there’s something wrong with my computer and that they have the only fix.

I’m pretty good at spotting these scams, and for me, they’re sometimes entertaining, but usually just annoying. For some people, especially elderly folks with little technical knowledge, these calls can be a horrible trap.

The latest edition of the SANS OUCH! Newsletter is all about phone scams: how to spot them, and what to do when you receive them.

About jrivett

Jeff Rivett has worked with and written about computers since the early 1980s. His first computer was an Apple II+, built by his father and heavily customized. Jeff's writing appeared in Computist Magazine in the 1980s, and he created and sold a game utility (Ultimaker 2, reviewed in the December 1983 Washington Apple Pi Journal) to international markets during the same period. Proceeds from writing, software sales, and contract programming gigs paid his way through university, earning him a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) degree at UWO. Jeff went on to work as a programmer, sysadmin, and manager in various industries. There's more on the About page, and on the Jeff Rivett Consulting site.

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