Corporal Kevin Charles, Drumheller RCMP.
Scammers have found another way to draw locals into telephones scams by spoofing local numbers.
Residents have been reporting they are receiving recorded telephone messages. What makes these more recent calls more sinister, is that they are often coming from a local phone number.
Corporal Kevin Charles of the Drumheller RCMP acknowledges that these calls are coming in. The local phone number makes the call more attractive for residents to answer, rather than just letting them ring.
“That is all through computers. A person can be overseas somewhere and over the internet use different software and make any number show up on a caller ID,” said Charles. “That is one of the ways they are getting around it.”
Before this, he says with these calls, scammers would simply start dialing sequential numbers until a person would answer. They quickly realized that the caller ID would display a foreign number. The new software shows a random local number.
“Often if you try to call that number back, it is not even in service,” he said.
The federal government has added mechanisms such as The national Do Not Call List and its antifraud centre to help residents navigate the world of telephone scams. These numbers are virtually impossible to trace and therefore cannot be registered on a Do Not Call List.
While number spoofing does not always indicate a scam, it should certainly be a red flag.
“We are not saying if you don’t recognize the number, don’t answer it, but do be aware that just because it is a local number it could still be a scam,” he said.
The bottom line he says is to make sure that if you pick up one of these calls, never share personal information on a phone.
“If you answer the phone and it is someone you don’t recognize, if it sounds suspicious, hang up,” he said.
