New Hampshire phone scams are deceptive practices of crooked individuals perpetrated over phone calls in order to steal money or obtain sensitive information from New Hampshire residents. Phone scammers employ robocalls and voice phishing to extort residents and use caller ID spoofing to hide their identities in the process. Phone lookup applications can help unmask the real identities of phone scammers.
The New Hampshire Office of the Attorney General publishes a list of common phone scams in the state on its website and posts consumer alerts that citizens may avail of to stay abreast of scam tactics used by phone scammers. Phone scammers typically begin by trying to establish trust between themselves and their targets before proceeding to ask for money or sensitive information.
Common phone scams in New Hampshire include:
- Fake Charity scams: where the scammer poses as a representative of a trustworthy charitable company seeking donations
- Social Security Scams: where the scammer claims to be from the Social Security Administration and tricks the target into divulging a social security number
- Medicare Scams: where the scammer pretends to be a staff of Medicare and tries to sell you cheap equipment or service in exchange for sensitive information.
- IRS Scams: where the caller poses as a staff of the IRS and threatens to jail or arrest the target if a certain amount of money is not paid
- Tech Support Scams: where the caller poses as a staff of a reputable tech company who can help fix a virus or malware issue on the target's computer
- Elderly Scams: where the caller poses as a grandchild of the target who needs money to get out of urgent financial trouble
- Employment Security Scams: where the scammer claims to represent entities providing unemployment benefits to unemployed persons.
What are New Hampshire IRS Scams?
New Hampshire IRS scams are commonest during tax seasons. Persons involved in this scam target recent immigrants and other taxpayers residing in the state. The callers claim to work with the IRS, using fake names and bogus IRS identification badge numbers. Many times, these criminals have done background work on their targets, churning out information such as home addresses, workplaces, and portions of social security numbers. IRS scammers usually alter the caller ID to make it look like the IRS is calling.
Targets are told they owe money to the IRS and it must be paid urgently through a wire transfer or a gift card. Targets may be threatened with deportation, arrest, or suspension of driver or business license. Many times, the caller becomes hostile and insult the target. Targets may be told they have a refund due to lure them into giving away private information. If the phone is not answered, the caller leaves an "urgent" callback request.
What are New Hampshire Social Security Scams?
A social security scam usually begins with a call from someone claiming to be from the Social Security Administration (SSA) who informs the recipient that due to the closing of SSA offices, the call recipient's benefits will be interrupted unless certain private information are given out. These include personal identifying information, such as social security or bank account number.
What are New Hampshire Fake Charity Scams?
Here, callers contact targets posing as representatives of reputable charities or otherwise fictitious charitable organizations, seeking donations for a variety of causes or humanitarian purposes. Fake charity scammers try to take advantage of their targets' generosity and compassion for others in need. Although the scam can happen at any time, they are especially prevalent after high-profile mishaps. Many of these scammers ask for payment in the form of gift cards or cryptocurrencies.
What are New Hampshire Employment Security Scams?
This type of scam is more prevalent during or after high-profile disasters. Crooked individuals often use tragedies to exploit the desperation of New Hampshire residents. Targets are required by callers to provide personal information over the telephone or e-mail by entities claiming to provide unemployment benefits as a result of a disaster, such as flooding, wild-fire, or disease outbreak.
What are New Hampshire Elderly Scams?
Elderly scams are typically targeted at seniors. Persons who perpetrate elderly scams try to play on the emotions of the targets. In a grandparent scam, a scammer calls a senior and pretends to be their grandchild. They ask if the target knows who is calling, and when the grandparent guesses the name of one of their grandchildren, they pretend to be that grandchild. The scammer proceeds to inform the grandparent that they are in some pressing problem that requires urgent financial help. Such problems include getting out of jail or paying a hospital bill. The scammer asks if the grandparent can send money using MoneyGram or Western Union and pleads with the target not to inform the other family members or anyone else about the situation.
What are New Hampshire Tech Support Scams?
Scammers may call you directly and pretend to be representatives of reputable software companies such as Microsoft or Apple. They may even falsify their caller ID to appear like that of a trusted tech company on your caller ID display. They ask you to grant backdoor access to your computer by installing applications that give them remote access to your device. Using remote access, these crooked persons misrepresent normal system output as signs of problems with your device.
Scammers might also initiate contact with you by displaying fake error messages on websites you normally visit, displaying support numbers, and luring you into calling such. They may also put your browser on full screen and display pop-up messages that are difficult to close, practically locking your browser. These fake error messages are designed to trick you into calling an indicated technical support line.
When you contact the "technical support personnel", they offer fake solutions for your "problems" and ask for payment in the form of a one-time fee or subscription to a purported support service.
What are New Hampshire Medicare Scams?
Medicare beneficiaries in New Hampshire are the typical targets in this type of phone scam. The scam may involve a person pretending to be a Medicare representative, a fraudulent provider trying to prescribe medical equipment or service, or any other undertaking with the aim of stealing your money or private information. Medicare scams are prevalent whenever there is open enrollment, a disaster or law change, or when beneficiaries make coverage changes for the forthcoming year.
Medicare scammers use many tricks to add credibility to their story in order for you to believe and respond to their inquiries and demands. Some Medicare scammers have the technological capability to make calls look official by falsifying their caller ID information, making it appear like such calls are from places other than their true sources. Sometimes the callers become stern and demand information or hang up and then call you repeatedly.
Many of the calls from Medicare scammers involve demands for sending a gift card or wiring money in exchange for not suspending your benefits. Other callers ask for identifying information, such as Social Security, bank account, or Medicare number - which may be used to commit financial fraud later.
How Do I Avoid Becoming a Victim of a Phone Scam?
Remember that anyone can fall victim to phone scams. Phone scammers sound like regular callers when they contact their targets and often sound convincing in their deceits. Here are some key advices to avoiding these scammers:
- Hang up on robocalls. If you answer a call and hear a prerecorded message, hang up immediately.
- Never give out private or sensitive information over a phone call.
- Avoid any arrangement with anyone who asks for up-front payment via money order, wire transfer, pre-loaded cards, or cryptocurrencies. It is difficult to recover money sent through these means.
- Do an internet search using the names, contact details to check for any references to a scam. Many scams have been identified this way.
- Add your number to the Federal Trade Commission's National Do Not Call Registry. You may sign up by telephone or via the Internet. The telephone number is 1-888-382-1222.
- Contact the Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services if you suspect exploitation in an elderly scam. Their phone number is 1-800-949-0470. Calls are confidential. You may also contact your local County Attorney's Office.
- Sign up for free email alerts on current trends in phone scams from the FTC. Report phone scams or suspicions of identity theft to the FTC.
- Use reverse phone lookup services to identify unknown callers.