At HV Shred, we use our blog to educate the community about the latest scams. Caller ID Spoofing is far from being a “funny ha ha” spoof. It could be a serious attack on your personal information. How does it work? A Caller ID Spoofer logs on to one of several websites that enable them to create an account by paying a small fee–the account allows them to enter a name and a number they want to pretend to be calling from–a bank–a credit union–some entity we are inclined to trust.
When we see the trusted name on our caller ID, we pick up the phone feeling as if we know with whom we are speaking–lulled into a false sense of confidence, we share personally identifying information.
What to do? Never give personal information over the phone on a call you don’t initiate. If you are contacted by a financial institution or similar, hang up and call the number you know directly. Better safe than sorry.
Be sure also to let you financial institution know if someone is spoofing them–they want to weed these hacks out even more than you–they are costing us all a lot of money and frustration.
For more on identity theft protection, please visit www.hvshred.com