For consumers, the Federal Trade Commission recently issued an alert about what is called “spear phishing,” meaning bogus telephone calls that seem to come from a trusted bank or other financial organization in which the caller already has some personal information. The caller asks for confirmation of the information and asks for additional details. The caller also masks the caller identification to make it look like a local call.
The FTC warned consumers to not trust their caller ID and not to trust someone just because the person has some personal information. Don’t give callers any additional personal information, the FTC warned.
“If you gave a scammer your information, go to IdentityTheft.gov to find out what to do if the scammer masks charges on your accounts,” the FTC said. “Even if you didn’t give personal information to the scammer, report the scam to the FTC. The information helps us understand what’s happening and can lead to investigations and legal action to shut scammers down.”