Telemarketers and Phishing attackers use different methods to trap users into their evil plans. To prevent themselves from being caught and pretend to be trustworthy, they need to be cautious to hide their original identity. For that, they use spoofing.
In this post, we would discuss what spoofing is, how to tell a number is spoofed, and how to trace a spoofed phone number.
What is Spoofing?
Spoofing is an act of communicating via phone or email in which the communicator pretends to be someone else in order to gain the trust of the person with whom the communication has been initiated. Spoofing can be conducted through any popular communicating medium such as emails or phone calls. It is primarily used by telemarketers and phishers to trap the victims to follow their dubious instructions.
Telemarketers use it to attract users to buy their products. By spoofing, they hide their original number and pretend to be someone locally calling. It is done to gain the trust of the caller.
Similarly, phishers use spoofing to scam users by pretending to call from a trusted organization or a specific geographic location to convince users into providing sensitive information such as bank details, social security numbers, login credentials, and more. Though email or web phishing can be detected using a robust security solution, it isn't easy to identify the phishing performed through spoofing calls. For an overall security from web spoofing and malware attacks, the light weighted antimalware—MalwareFox can be used.
How to trace a Spoofed Phone Number?
A spoofed phone call is the one that is made on your phone pretending to be from someone trusted, but in reality, it is from the scammers. Though there are no direct ways to detect a spoof call, you can try to trace it down using the following methods.
- Contact your telecom provider. The telecom providers can track down the original number from which the spoof call was made to you.
- You can take the help of law enforcement if you suffer a major loss due to a spoof call.
- Suppose the caller pretends to be from an organization. In that case, you can verify that by calling the official number of that company and confirm the identity of the person who contacted you.
- You can perform a quick Google search of the number to check its authenticity. Some scam numbers are listed on the web, so if you got a call from one of those, you would know that.
- Use a people finder free search service or a caller ID app. Though spoof callers hide their real caller IDs, on caller ID apps, you also get to know what other users think about that number. For example, if a number is used for scamming different users, they can rate it as spam so that other users who get a call from the same number can be alerted.
- You can do one more thing. While on a call, if you feel that it is a spoof, you can dial that number from another phone while being on the call. If the number is not engaged, that means you got a spoof call.
What to do if you get a Spoof Call?
It isn't easy to detect or trace a Spoof Call. If you encountered one, follow these tips:
- Never provide your private information to any unknown caller. No genuine organization asks for confidential information on calls or emails.
- Never send money if any person or organization asks for it on the call.
- Block the number if you find it suspicious. Though spoofers use different caller IDs, so it is difficult to avoid them just by blocking.
- You can also report the number to the cybersecurity officials in FCC so that they can take the required action.
- Never reply to texts from an unknown number even if it asks you to respond with STOP to opt-out of future texts. This is the trick used by scammers to trap users.
How to protect yourself from Spoofing?
Spoofing can be very devastating if it occurs with you. It can come in various ways, so it is vital to take protective measures.
- Always remain alert while receiving random calls and replying to unknown emails.
- Regularly change the login credentials to prevent any damage, even if the spoofer manages to get your details.
- To avoid spoofing through emails and web calls, get an allrounder security program for your system.
