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Posts Tagged ‘phishing’

Should I Worry About Pretexting?

December 20th, 2008

Should I Worry about Pretexting?

Pretexting is when someone intentionally falsifies their own identity or lies about something in order to get information out of YOU! This is easily done over the phone by someone who has put a lot of time and effort into figuring out how to get you, or any target, to give up some really personal information that will allow them to do some harm to personal accounts.

Credit Cards and Bank Account information are perfect targets for a pretext scam and some sort of telephone survey is usually put together to withdraw information commonly used in association with accessing those accounts. To protect yourself against a pretexting fraud is not that hard as long as you really think twice about answering questions involving mother’s maiden name, first telephone number, favorite author, etc.  You may recognize some of these terms from setting up your security questions for accounts, or ways to retrieve online passwords if you forget them.

There are plenty of legitimate telephone survey companies out there trying to perform good deeds and collect important information for credible pursuits but who really needs to participate with such a great risk of identity theft out there?  Remember, someone involved in pretexting has gone to great lengths to perfect their scam and appear to be a legitimate representative of some company or agency that most people use.  These criminals are masters of  Social Engineering and know how to gather information without us realizing it is going on.

So why worry about pretexting?

The real problem associated with a pretext type of scam is that once a person has some of your personal information, they can do a pretty good job convincing a customer representative of your bank or credit card company that they are actually you and need either a new credit card issued or some type of malicious balance transfer. There is really no limit to what a good thief can steal and we all really do need to worry about pretexting.

Now there are really two points to be made here. First is that you can protect yourself from a potential scam by knowing who is on the other end of the phone. If they are calling from a cell phone, their number will probably not be associated with any familiar number or a name in your call log.  Searching the number and identifying the owner of the cell phone can be done easily by using a free reverse look up or a cell reverse.  Once you find out the identify of the person behind the calls you can report them to the authorities or simply let them know you caught them phishing. The later usually works and they will move on to the next target.

The second point is that Trace A Cell Number or any reputable mobile number search will not have any information in their database obtained through pretexting. Cell phone number search data and unlisted telephone numbers are accessed through legitimate records and are compiled for use legally. Anyone can pay to use these phone records sources but good reverse look up services have done all the work and have all the information needed in one place and retrieve it for an absolutely minimal cost.

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How To Stop Prank Callers

January 5th, 2008

Stopping Prank Calls

Receiving a prank call is not only an annoying experience but it can also be quite scary. Often, the prank call is meaningless and no harm is intended, but every once in awhile a prankster can cross the line and turn into a stalker.

Putting an end to harassing or prank phone calls my prove to be more of a challenge than most people think. Those who participate in scams, phishing, pretexting or just plain old harassment will try and hide behind a wall of anonymity and a simple *69 will not actually identify the caller but might not even lead you directly back to their phone.

If you are truly afraid of someone who is harassing or stalking you by phone, you should first report the incidents to the police so they will have some type of record of your complaint. Just in case things escalate and you find yourself face to face with this person, police reports can help the police do their jobs and better protect you.

Tracing the call is the most aggressive approach to take without involving the police. In most cases, the source of the phone calls is not there to hurt you and many of us might feel a bit silly for involving the police without at least attempting to identify the source of the phone calls.

So the first step to any obvious phone call trace is checking the Caller ID and/or *69. Again, most telemarketers, prankster, and criminals are not going to make it easy for you to find them so a reverse look up will probably be needed. A reverse lookup is a search by phone number service. By entering the telephone number in your call log, you will be given information pertaining to that number.

When using a free reverse look up, you will be given common public information and not much else. A paid reverse telephone look up will yield a lot more data and probably allow you to identify the the incoming phone caller. You see, quality reverse look up services have access to millions of records gained from several legal sources. Most notably, cell phone number listings which are not published in the white page.  A quality reverse number look up is a massive conglomeration of every type of public record available and these types of records are rarely compiled in one place. Access to databases in general  can be very expensive but not when tracing phone numbers by paying a small fee to access a reverse lookup service.

Once the information about your caller shows up on your computer screen, you can usually get them to leave you alone by calling them and telling them you know who they are. If they are sales people, they will move on to the next target. If they are bill collectors, they will immediately begin to follow the proper procedures when attempting to collect a debt, and finally if the caller is someone who wishes to do you harm, you should immediately report their identity to the police department.

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