LITTLE ROCK (KTHV) – You can no longer trust the number that comes up on your caller ID. This message is coming from the Attorney General’s Office.
Scammers are using numbers you recognize and sometimes even your own phone number to get you to answer your phone. This is called spoofing. And now, even spoof texts are popping up in the state. One woman says she gets these calls every day.
Any time the phone rings, Leslie Ford questions whether to answer it.
“It would be nice to just be able to pick up the phone and say hello,” said Ford.
But over the last three years, for Ford, picking up the phone and just saying hello happens less and less. Several years ago, Ford put her home phone number on the national do not call list. But calls continued to come in every day, sometimes three to five times a day.
Ford added, “California. Pennsylvania. Florida.”
The calls mostly came from out-of-state. But in the last six months a local number Ford recognized popped up. She answered.
“It was the credit card company,” said Ford.
The number was one number off from hers. Ford hung up and hit redial.
“What they get is an individual who knows nothing of the scheme and who is receiving calls day and night from people complaining why did you call me,” said Deputy Attorney General Jim DePriest.
To read the full story on our affiliate station’s website KTHV – Channel 11, click here.
