14 DAY TRIAL // Callers saying they are from the New York Attorney General's Buffalo Regional Office try to fool people into disclosing personal information and into paying money by threatening with lawsuits over unpaid fake debts the office tries to collect.
It may seem like a bold move, but the fraudsters know that impersonating a government official has an effect on the recipient of the call, who is more likely to comply with the demands.
Simply terminate the conversation
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman issued a warning on Wednesday about these fraudulent calls, saying that they have increased in frequency. In a single day, six consumers reported that they received this type of calls, suggesting that the scam is highly active and widespread.
Schneiderman says that intimidating tactics like the ones reported to his office are common and that most of the times the perpetrators are based overseas, which is why they have no reluctance to impersonate a government official.
The way to deal with a call asking for money or sensitive personal details that could be used for identity theft operations is to hang up the phone. Also, consumers should not respond to voicemails.
Scare tactics should always raise suspicions
The Attorney General says that consumers in Buffalo, and in other parts of the state, should know that his office would never resort to threats and harasses over the phone, regardless of the matter discussed.
Moreover, government institutions do not call citizens to ask for money, be it a debt that needs to be collected or a fine for some offense.
Phone scams can be easily identified by the fact that the person at the other end presents the phony demands as urgent, pressing the victim to fulfill the request, which generally has as objective defrauding.
To hide their trails, scammers ask for payment to be made via pre-pay cards, by giving the code over the phone. These transactions are difficult to trace because the money can be obtained at different cash points without identification.
Any individual receiving calls asking for money or personal information and pretending to come from a trustworthy institution are advised to hang up and verify the legitimacy of the request by initiating themselves the call to said institution.