GREENSBORO, N.C. — When you get a phone call from the IRS, Amazon, or your bank, I want you to treat it like it is a scam call until proven otherwise.
Why? Because we get so many scam calls that look like they could be real and sound that way too.
When you get a call, ask these three questions:
Who are you?
What entity, company, or department are you with?
Is it okay if I hang up can call the entity, agency, or company back?
There's only one acceptable answer.
"You have to be able to verify and if they're not willing to get to that level of details of, 'You don't need to use the number I'm calling from. Sure, go to the company website get the number, and call us back', " said Mark Kapcynski, OneRep, Senior VP of Strategic Partnerships.
Any legitimate caller will be fine with you hanging up, looking up the number for yourself, and calling the company, agency, or business back. Don't be fooled by a caller who is pressing you for information, payment or to take some action and seems to have a lot of info about you.
"It's so easy to get personal info off the internet. Literally for a dollar, I can buy all this info about you from where you live, what kinds of cars you drive, your kids, your political fraudsters just have a gold mine there and use all those details that they know everything about you," said Kapcynski.
OneRep is a company that scrubs people's info off the internet. But scammers are constantly coming up with new ways to trick you. using technology or just the old tried and true gimmicks. So treat every call as a scam call. Ask for information. Hang up. Find the number yourself and go from there.