How to Scare a Phone Scammer (For Good)

Michelle Wilson - November 10, 2021

We’ve all heard the calls. Whether they’re trying to upgrade your internet (supposedly) or they imitate your credit card company trying to secure your confidential details, phone scams are here for the long haul. Reports have shown that Americans have lost $29.8 billion to phone scams within the past year alone. That’s a steep price for a few annoying phone calls. With nearly 1 in 3 Americans falling victim to a phone scam in the last year, identifying these callers is critical to safeguarding your information. Here’s how to not only identify a questionable call but get your number off the list permanently.

How to Identify a Scam Call?

Although individual companies may vary, scammers hold a few features in common, whether they claim to be from the SSA, IRS, your bank, or a random lottery you never entered. The largest red flag is the need to act quickly. Often, phone scams hold a substantial threat over their victims, whether that’s police involvement, significant financial loss, or deportation. These callers might also offer a large prize (whether financial, trip, or other expensive gifts) over your head. Time scarcity is designed to create an immediate response.

It’s critical to evaluate any caller promising or threatening extreme behaviors either way. Significant departments with the government won’t contact individuals over accounts. Police departments don’t contact criminals before making an arrest. Deportations don’t let people know before apprehension (otherwise, the majority would go into hiding).

Finally, the payment methods typically don’t add up to reputable methods for vendors. For example, government agencies never use gift cards, bitcoins, or cash payments through Western Union.

Why Try to Scare Phone Scammers?

Scaring (or annoying) phone scammers might seem like a waste of time to most people, but it can serve a few purposes overall. Initially, something is satisfying about putting the shoe on the other foot, even if it’s only for a few minutes. More importantly, the longer a phone scammer is on the phone with you (wasting their time), the less likely they’re going to contact someone that discloses their personal information. It’s important to remember that most scammers aren’t going to shut down their company with a few of these methods. The individuals making the calls are likely at the bottom of the chain, getting minimal pay for shady employment.

3 Ways to Troll or Scare Phone Scammers

If you’re hoping to give a phone scammer a taste of their own medicine, consider the following methods. Some methods are easier to use than others (for example, screaming into the phone isn’t going to work well on public transit), so have a few different options available at your disposal.

Threaten Exposure of the Company

The only valid method of deterring future calls is the belief that getting caught is a real option. This doesn’t mean threatening police involvement (unfortunately, they’ve heard all that before). It means acting sneaky. When the scammer starts speaking, quietly mumble the phrase, “how long does the call need to be live for tracing?” If the caller continues into their spiel, periodically ask, “how long have they been on the line?” or “where are our people right now?”

Likewise, you can also let the caller know that the call is being recorded for legal reasons. A standard script of, “this call is being recorded for legal reasons. Your continuing the conversation is consent to this recording. This recording is evidence against you in any legal proceedings, financial discoveries, and criminal proceedings.”

Get Loud About It

Anyone that grew up in the 1990s is already familiar with the unfortunate fax number. Calling a fax line would put a high-pitched sound on blast, right into your ear. While you may not have a fax machine available, you can imitate such a sound. When a scam artist contacts you, grab a whistle and blow it loudly into the phone’s microphone (don’t do this with your ear close to the speaker). Continue blowing the whistle loudly until the call disconnects. If you don’t have a whistle available, use your voice and scream. Loud, sudden noises will startle the individual caller on the line, hopefully ending the call and removing your number from the list.

Fake It Until You Make It

This method is less about scaring the caller and more about wasting their time. Use your imagination and let it run free. This might include repeating every sentence back to the scam artist, posing everything they’ve said as a question, or pretending to be quite elderly or unaware of who’s calling/hard of hearing/continuously going off-topic with random stories. The idea of this method is to waste as much time as possible.

What Can Scammers Do With Your Phone Number?

Your phone number is just a tiny piece in your digital footprint, but it serves an essential purpose. Initially, robocalls automate through a call center when the scam artist calls you. That means the program is likely an auto dialer (an automated phone call that goes in number sequence). Once the victim answers, the number gets flagged as an active account. This increases the resale value of your phone number (where companies will sell your phone number to other companies).

As an individual piece of information, your phone number likely doesn’t bring much value to criminals. The end goal is financial compensation or gaining personal data from the victim. Choosing to engage these scammers brings incentive to uncover personal details about the phone number. It also helps connect the phone number to individuals as a digital footprint. Collectively, pieces of your digital footprint are used for identity theft or financial gain. For example, a phone number, name, and address are often enough to open a utility account or cell phone. Unfortunately, answering these calls will also increase the probability of your phone number being used repeatedly by new criminals.

How to Protect Yourself from Phone Scammers?

One of the easiest ways to protect yourself from phone scammers is by limiting your contact with them. Installing a robocall blocking service on your phone (whether through your phone carrier or a private app) can restrict the communication attempts of scammers. Additionally, hanging up on phone scammers or blocking the number from calling back is effective. If the caller has your personal information, putting a fraud alert on your credit report will block fraudulent attempts of opening accounts.

Choose to Interact or Ignore

Whether you choose to interact with phone scams or ignore their calls, it seems this scam isn’t disappearing anytime soon. By staying alert and recognizing the signs of a fraudulent call, you’ll lower the likelihood of becoming a victim. Always remember, legitimate companies will never ask for payment in gift cards, cryptocurrency, or Western Union.