ORLANDO, Fla. – When your phone screen flashes a familiar phone number without a name, chances are it’s a trap known as the “neighbor scam.”
Experts with Hiya, a Seattle-based phone protection service, report more than half of 5.3 billion calls tracked between January and May used the “neighbor scam” tactic to trick consumers into answering the phone.
Simply put, the neighbor scam uses legitimate phone numbers to mimic or spoof the first six digits of a user’s phone number -- the area code and the following three digits – “to trick consumers into picking up the phone thinking it’s a neighbor or nearby business calling."
Jonathan Nelson, director of Hiya’s reputation data division, told News 6 that spammers have moved on to also spoofing the first five, four, or three digits of numbers “in the hopes of getting consumers to pick up what appears to be a neighbor’s call.”
“Scammers are experimenting with ways to spoof their number to get consumers to pick up the phone,” Nelson said. “Many consumers are now aware of the neighbor scam but it hasn’t stopped scammers from trying to evolve the tactic by calling with similar numbers, whether it’s mimicking the first six digits down to only the area code.”
The data Hiya collected through May also identified the most common area codes spoofed in the neighbor scams:
1. 602 - Phoenix
2. 214 - Dallas
3. 832 - Houston
4. 210 - San Antonio
5. 404 - Atlanta
6. 678 - Atlanta
7. 704 - Charlotte
8. 702 - Las Vegas
9. 623 - Phoenix
10. 407 - Orlando
Consumers should be aware of common scam techniques that fraudsters leveraging the neighbor scam use once they have someone on the line:
● Scare tactics: Scammers will try to convince consumers that there is a warrant out for their arrest or that they inadvertently owe the IRS money in order to scare consumers into providing them with personal or financial information.
● Immediate demand of payment: Scammers create a sense of urgency so consumers believe they need to pay immediately or suffer dire consequences.
● Unrequested services: The caller offers travel discounts, interest rate adjustments, or refinancing debts that the consumer didn't request.
Hiya officials told News 6 the company provides “an industry-first solution” available on both its iOS and Android apps to protect consumers from the neighbor scam. Hiya automatically alerts users of its iOS app to potential spoofers implementing this imitation technique.
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