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State Consumer Protection officials say they are seeing a new twist on a familiar scam.
Complaints have once again been coming in about phone calls from ‘Rachel’ with card holder services, who promises to help you lower your credit card interest rates. The calls first started popping up two years ago and Jerad Albracht with the state Division of Consumer Protection says hanging up remains the best option.
Albracht says more people are hearing the fraudulent sales pitch right now because those running the scam are using technology that allows them to mask their phone numbers, making it appear as if they are calling from a local number. The technique makes it so caller ID devices display a number that may only be a few digits off from the target number, which may catch people off guard.
The calls typically give you the option of pushing a number to talk to an operator or to be removed from the call list. Albracht says you “don’t want to do either,” because interacting with the call in any way can simply confirm your number is active. That couldend up making you a target for other scam attempts in the future.