What are Hillsborough County Area Codes?
Area codes are the first three-digit group of numbers that appear before North American telephone numbers. As part of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), area codes identify the actual Numbering Plan Area (NPA) where the call originates from. Free reverse phone lookup services can be used to identify area codes and their NPAs. The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission (NHPUC) is the government regulatory agency that regulates Hillsborough County area codes.
Area Code 603
Area code 603 is the only area code that serves Hillsborough County and the entire State of New Hampshire. It was launched in October 1947 as one of the original 86 numbering plan areas.
What Are the Best Cell Phone Plans in Hillsborough County?
The major phone carriers in the U.S., including AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint provide active coverage in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire. However, as expected, some provide better coverage than others. T-Mobile is the network that has the widest coverage in the county with 90% coverage, followed closely by AT&T with 84% coverage and Verizon with 78% coverage. Sprint appears to have the least coverage. However, this is not the case in some areas like the City of Nashua with 68% coverage and the City of Salem with 76% coverage. Note that T-Mobile does not have strong coverage in some parts such as Hooksett when compared to AT&T and Verizon, with 98% and 78% coverage respectively. Generally, the network service quality tends to reduce in densely populated areas. It may also be negatively affected by the weather.
A 2018 National Center of Health Statistics survey estimated that 46% of the New Hampshire adult population used only wireless telephones, while only 4.5% of New Hampshire adults used only landlines. The difference in the preferences of telephony services is more significant for minors in the state. While 53.8% of the minors preferred wireless-only services, only 1.2% used landline telephony services. Therefore, it is evident that the use of cell phones has significantly surpassed the use of landlines for telephony services in Hillsborough County.
In Hillsborough County, Voice over Internet Protocol referred to as VoIP, is slowly taking over from the traditional telephone lines in the county as a result of its benefits. VoIP uses a broadband Internet connection to transmit telephone calls and other multimedia messages from the sender to the recipient. It also provides access to additional advanced features at minimal costs when compared to traditional phone lines and better voice quality even over long-distance calls.
What Are Hillsborough County Phone Scams?
Hillsborough County phone scams involve scammers carrying out fraudulent activities through telephony services to defraud their targets. Phone scammers perpetrate their schemes by contacting county residents and deceiving them. These scammers sometimes spoof Caller ID or use robocalls to achieve their malicious aims. Reverse phone number lookup services provide effective services to uncover such evil intentions by identifying and tracking the scammers.
Below are some scams perpetrated in Hillsborough County:
What are Warrant Calls Scams?
Here, the scammer calls a county resident and claims to be a deputy from the County Sheriff’s Office. The scammer then tells their target that they have a warrant out for their arrest and that they must make payment to avoid arrest or more severe consequences. The target may also be told to pay a fine using a money card or gift card.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office warns county residents of these types of phone scams. The Sheriff adds that the office will never call to request payment through gift card and money card to resolve a warrant. If you are contacted for such, you can confirm if you have a warrant, by directly contacting the County Sheriff’s Office. Conduct a reverse phone look up to get the true identity of who called.
What are Investment Scams?
This involves scammers contacting residents to inform them of bogus investment opportunities that have high returns and involve little or low risk. These opportunities always appear too good to be true. However, this is a disguise, the sole aim is to defraud the target with false investment opportunities that do not exist. These scammers may as well take on the identities of legitimate investment establishments and business institutions that the target is conversant with and may have even had transactions business with in the past. In most cases, the scammer tries to hasten the target’s decision-making to discourage them from doing proper research first, by saying that the offer is only available for a short time.
Ensure that no matter how pressured you are, you do not rush to accept any offer, without first doing adequate research on the investment opportunity. If you are able to verify that the investment is legit, contact the actual organization offering the investment and not the person that called you initially, except if the company identifies the caller as their representative.
What are Impersonation Scams?
Most scammers use impersonation to make their schemes believable and get more people to fall for their scams. Here, they take on the identity of persons that their targets are familiar with, such as the trusted family members or friends of the target. They may request to borrow huge amounts of money to sort out urgent needs and promise to pay the money back. In other cases, the scammers may also impersonate legitimate business organizations or government agencies such as the IRS and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. After getting the attention of the target, the scammer may then request their target’s personal or financial information. Common scams in this category are IRS imposter scams and grandkid scams.
If you receive any of such calls, you may use a good reverse phone lookup service to answer the question “who is this number registered?” and “who called me.” It is important to note that some of these scammers spoof the Caller ID information of persons they intend to impersonate. This means that their Caller IDs will be concealed to show the Caller IDs of the persons they wish to impersonate. End the call immediately you suspect anything unusual and directly call the original number of the person or government official, just to be sure.
What are Charity Scams?
Scammers often take advantage of the good intentions of county residents and pretend to seek donations for a good cause, but in reality, the donation will be misappropriated. In some cases, these scammers impersonate legitimate charities and claim to solicit donations on behalf of the charity organizations. In such cases, directly contact the organization and confirm if the caller is affiliated with them. Some websites offer reverse phone lookup free, you can conduct a phone number search through any of these websites to verify the caller’s true ID, although this will only work if the scammer did not spoof a Caller ID.
What are Robocalls and Spam Calls?
Robocalls are calls that are placed through automated systems to deliver pre-recorded messages to a large number of persons. Robocalls may sometimes contain prompts for the recipients to be transferred to live-agents. These calls are mostly placed by telemarketers and non-profit organizations, or during political campaigns. However, fraudsters also use robocalls to carry out criminal schemes to defraud their targets and get their personal and financial information. Individuals can use reverse phone lookup services to identify and block robocalls.
Spam calls are unwanted calls that are sent to a large number of persons to deliver messages that are irrelevant to the receiver. Most mobile phones have inbuilt apps that help notify you of spam calls although, for some phones, you may have to download the apps that identify and block them.
Here are some ways to avoid falling victim to robocalls scams:
- End the call the moment you pick a robocall unknowingly and ensure you do not press any number, as directed by the call. This is because it may be a bait to track active numbers and target them with more scam calls.
- Enable the inbuilt call blocking app on your phone and if your phone does not have one, download a third-party call blocking app and use it to filter out spam calls
- Report illegal robocalls to the FTC through the online complaint assistant or call 1-888-382-1222.
- Register your telephone number on the National Do Not Call Registry to reduce robocalls and other unsolicited sales calls from telemarketers. When your number is registered, you will be able to easily identify illegal robocalls and potential phone scams.
The FTC also provides residents with detailed information on how to block unwanted calls.
How to Spot and Report Hillsborough County Phone Scams?
Scammers constantly evolve their schemes to avoid suspicion. Hence, it is important that Hillsborough County residents are well informed of these scammers’ schemes. They are also to maintain vigilance when receiving calls. The FTC provides the following tips on how to spot and avoid scams:
- The caller requests sensitive personal information or payment - Hang up the moment this occurs. If the caller claims to be representing a legitimate business or government agency, you may contact them by yourself after hanging up to verify the call’s source. To get the right numbers of government officials, check the official websites of the government agency.
- You receive several unwanted calls from an unfamiliar number - Use a reverse phone number lookup to identify the phone number and block it. You may also contact your phone carrier about call blocking and read expert reviews about your options.
- The caller tells you about business offers or deals that sound too good to be true - Avoid such offers and if you are inquisitive, take your time to investigate properly on the offer and the caller.
- The caller requests that you make upfront payments before claiming a prize, sweepstake, or lottery - Hang up immediately and do not share your financial information over the phone. Also do not wire money to anyone who asks you to. A caller requesting payments via wire transfers, reloadable debit cards, or gift cards is a red flag. This is because these payment methods are difficult to trace and transferred funds cannot be recovered.
- The caller requests that you do not disclose details of the call or transaction - Hang up immediately and also inform trusted family members or friends to examine the situation and get their opinion.
Good reverse phone lookup services can be used to identify scams by searching with the suspected scammer’s address, name, and phone number. In addition, government institutions in Hillsborough County provide updated information on how to spot scams and report them.
Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office - can be contacted to report scams
New Hampshire Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Bureau - Provides Scam Alerts, Red Flags, and Other Tips to residents to keep them informed on the trending scams in the state.
New Hampshire Department of Justice Consumer Protection Bureau - Scams can be reported electronically or by downloading and printing a complaint form. The completed form should be mailed to the department at:
New Hampshire Department of Justice
33 Capitol Street | Concord, NH | 03301
Telephone: 603-271-3658
To file a complaint electronically, register with the State for filing forms online. Activate your account by clicking on the link that will be sent to your email address after you register. After this, file your complaint electronically.
Federal Trade Commission - Provides tips on how to identify common phone scams and avoid robocalls. The FTC also manages the National Do Not Call Registry, which ensures that you do not receive unsolicited sales calls that may sometimes be from scammers. Through the FTC’s online consumer complaint assistant, residents can also report any phone scams or suspicious calls.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) - Provides guidelines on how to identify spoofing and enable call blocking to reduce the risk of residents falling victim to phone scams. The FCC also combines efforts with telephone carriers to enhance caller authentication technology. This combats illegal caller ID spoofing. You may report any form of illegal caller ID spoofing and other phone scams to the FCC by completing an online complaint form.