The Business Bureau of Upstate New York is warning people about various phone scams going around, which seek to steal from victims by claiming to be from the IRS, foreign lotteries, Publishers Clearing House, and Microsoft.

“The phone is still a scammer’s number one contact method,” Warren Clark, president of the BBB of Upstate New York, told the Democrat and Chronicle. “While many crooks have started targeting consumers via email and text messages, the telephone, which is easy and cost-effective, is still their weapon of choice.”

Most scams trick victims out of their personal information by telling them that they’ve won sweepstakes, games of chance such as random drawings, online instant win games, and scratch and win cards. This new phone scams, though, trick victims out of their personal info by pressuring them with threats of incurring penalties, of negatively affecting someone they care about, or of other similar consequences.
In order to avoid facing the telephone scams, the BBB of Upstate New York suggests putting your phone number on the federal Do Not Call Registry, but also warns that it’s not the perfect solution, as there are other ways of obtaining a person’s phone number.

Some of the more popular phone scams going around are the IRS scam, advance-fee loans/grant scam, and sweepstakes scams.

In the IRS Scam, phony representatives claim the victim owes taxes, which must be paid, or a warrant will be issued for their arrest. The phony IRS rep may also threaten the victim with a potential lawsuit. However, the IRS never uses the phone for collection purposes, instead relying exclusively on the U.S. mail. Targeted victims might also receive emails, which appear to be from the IRS, that direct the receivers to update their IRS e-files immediately.

In the advance-fee loans/grant scam, con artists offer loans or grants, which the targeted victim never applied to. These loans or grants require up-front fees, and naturally never deliver.

In sweepstakes scams, con artists tell the potential victims that they’ve won a fabulous prize — a car, a getaway, large sums of cash — but need to pay for some reason, be it an administrative cost or something else. This need of payment is the biggest red flag. Sweepstakes contests are free to enter, never require payment, and never ask to verify a winner’s identity with a credit card number.