The Scam Squad has received input from many residents describing pseudo billing from their cable, telephone and internet bundling provider. The scam may appear as an email, a phone call warning or a mailed letter. The ruse is to get you into a panic mode by threatening that your service will be interrupted for nonpayment.
If you receive a fake phone call, the person will claim to be a representative from Dish Network, Cox Communications or CenturyLink. The caller will claim that your payment has not been received and your provider will disconnect your service if payment is not received within an urgent time frame. This helpful representative will, of course, offer to immediately remedy the situation by taking payment over the phone. You will be asked to provide a credit or debit card number.
You may think to yourself that you know you made that payment and it might even be recorded in your checkbook but the caller might convince you that a glitch in the mail system has prevented the company from getting the check.
So you decide you do not want to have the service interrupted and paying that fee will keep it connected – you feel pressured. Stop! Tell the caller you will call right back and then hang up the phone. Locate a previous bill, look up the number of your provider in the phone book or find one of those weekly flyers that come with the newspaper. Call the number on the bill or on one of the above mentioned resources. This will reveal whether the call is a hoax.
Do not call the scam artist back to tell them you have discovered what they were trying to do. This will only allow them to put you on a list of people who will converse. They sell this list to other fraudsters who hope you will not be as clever with the next scam. Just hang up if they call again; you can accomplish more by spreading the word to warn neighbors and friends.
If you receive this scam in an email, avoid the clickjack that allows a portal entry to your information in your personal computer. Clickjack is like a carjacking; someone takes over your personal information and can change your password, turning your computer into a spamming robot. Do not Click Here To Pay. Remember that a clickjack occurs when you unknowingly Like a fraudulent app or click Pay Now on one of these schemes.
Credit card information and bank account numbers should never be given over the phone to unsolicited callers.
If you have been a victim, notify the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, make a report for the bank or credit card company and file an online complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at www.ftccomplainassistant.gov. Experts will refer you to various resources that can assist you.
Call the Pima County Sheriff’s Auxiliary volunteers with information about scams and frauds. To contact the Scam Squad call 351-6744 or email [email protected] . To report suspicious activity or a particular incident of fraud call 351-4900.