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https://www.blackenterprise.com/6-ways-to-detect-scam-calls/
Is this call coming from a scammer?
There’s no way around it, Americans are inundated every day with nuisance and scam calls: about 50 billion of them per year, according to call-blocking app YouMail (the Federal Communications Commission says 4 billion/month, which is right in the same ballpark). Even that’s not the whole picture, because it only counts automated robocalls, and not the ones made by actual humans.
Now, not all of those calls (and texts) are scams, Spokeo says. Some are legitimate, and some are just a bit shady. But enough of them are scams that some kind of scammer phone number lookup would be really, really useful. The good news is that there are several ways to tell if a call or text comes from a scammer, including — yes — ways to look up the phone number.
Scam Calls and Texts Are a Big Problem
You’ll see slightly different numbers, depending on the source you look at, but YouMail estimates the number of scam calls at about 30 billion a year, or 60% of all robocalls. In 2022 the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported that call center fraud accounted for about $1 billion of the year’s $10 billion total losses to fraud. The FCC’s Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book for 2022 doesn’t break out telephone-based fraud specifically, but imposter scams — scammers pretending to be the police, or Amazon, or the IRS, or your bank — were the most common form of fraud and were second only to identity theft in the total number of complaints. Those scams usually (but not invariably) take place by telephone, so it’s another strong indication of just how big the problem is.
There are a couple of complications that make this even more damaging. One is that scammers can pretty easily spoof your caller ID, making it look like the call comes from a legitimate number. Another is that scammers have embraced text-based scams because we’re much more likely to open a text than an email, and because we aren’t as likely to be suspicious of texts.
The news isn’t all gloom and doom. Most of the same sources point out that robocalls have actually declined somewhat over the past few years, since the Pallone-Thune TRACED Act (aka “that new robocall law”) gave regulators and law enforcement a whole new set of tools to work with. Even so, it’s mostly up to individuals to protect themselves.
Is This Number a Scammer? How to Check
The good news is that however the call or text arrives, or whatever it says, there are plenty of ways to identify scammer phone numbers. Let’s take a look at some of them.
Check the Real Organization’s Website
A good starting point, if you receive a phone message or text that seems dubious, is to check that company’s or agency’s website. Companies like Apple and Amazon, and government agencies like the IRS, all have excellent pages to help you recognize scam calls and texts when you see them (because they’re among the most-impersonated by scammers).
Know What the Real Organization Will and Won’t Do
Similarly, those websites will usually explain to you — on the same page, or one that’s linked from it — some tell-tale signs that you’ve been contacted by a scammer. The IRS, for example, will never call you about your tax status without sending you a letter first. Your bank will never ask you to verify your account number and PIN over the phone. The police will never call and threaten to arrest you, because why warn you in advance?
Most importantly, legitimate organizations won’t harass you, berate you or threaten you with penalties or jail time. Some of the sketchier collection agencies might walk that fine line (there are laws limiting what they can say or do), but you won’t get that kind of treatment from government agencies or companies you deal with.
Learn the Characteristics Most Scam Calls/Texts Share
Almost all scam calls and texts share a handful of common characteristics, and once you know the combination it’s hard to be fooled. These include:
- Huge pressure to act quickly. It may come in the form of a “carrot” (a limited time offer, an increase in your Social Security Benefits, a lottery win) or a “stick” (threat of account closure, collections action, even jail time or deportation), but there’s always a plausible reason for you to act right now. Admittedly, legitimate companies often run time-limited offers, from a special burger at McDonald’s to the weekend sale at your supermarket, but not typically in the form of a high-pressure text or phone call.
- There’ll be a callback number on your voicemail, or a link in a text. Often the whole point of the initial call is just to con you into calling back at a given number, or to click on an included link. The phone number inevitably rings to a call center run by the scammers, and links will typically take you to a bogus site (or bogus app download). You may think you’re fixing your Netflix account or doing some routine shopping, but you’re really providing scammers with your payment information or private data. Pro tip: Some recent scams now use those square QR codes, rather than links, but the end result is the same.
- Insistence on a specific form of payment. What do gift cards, wire transfers, Venmo, and cryptocurrency transactions have in common? They’re all hard to trace, hard or impossible to reverse, and hugely popular with scammers. Legitimate businesses (and especially government agencies) won’t specify one of these payment methods, so that’s a “smoking gun” that you’ve got a scammer on your hands.
Those are just a few of the things you can expect from a scam phone call or text. For specific examples you can turn to sources like the Federal Trade Commission’s Phone Scams page, the FBI’s Scams and Safety page, the AARP, or the BBB’s Scam Tracker page. At the time of writing, for example, one of the hot scams is imposters pretending to be family members in trouble and in need of money (for bail, or after an accident). It mostly targets seniors, but anyone can be a victim.
Look At the Incoming Call’s Area Code
This may seem like an odd one, but some area codes get used by a lot of scammers (Spokeo compiled a list of those in a previous article). It doesn’t mean that every call coming from those area codes is automatically a scam, but unless you live there or have family there you can probably ignore those calls or texts.
Google the Number
Yup, sometimes it’s just that easy. If you search that incoming number on Google (or the alternative search engine of your choice), you may find search results complaining about fraudulent or harassing calls from that number. It’s especially helpful if you include the word “fraud” or “scam” after the 10-digit phone number itself.
What to Do When You Receive Scam Calls or Texts
If you receive calls or texts that are likely to be scams, you have some options. In the case of calls, your best option is simply to hang up and not engage (it’s tempting to mess with them, but probably not in your best interest). In the case of texts, just ignore and delete them. In either case, you can then block the number so future calls or messages won’t come through.
It’s even better to just not answer those dubious calls in the first place, but it can be hard to do if you’re looking up the number manually. If you want to screen scammer phone numbers in real time, there are apps available that let you explore call-screening and -blocking options available from your phone carrier.
A few other things for your to-do list:
- Add your number to the Do Not Call registry. Scammers and “shady but sorta legitimate” callers will ignore that, but you don’t want to talk to them anyway, so it weeds out most of the potentially troublesome calls (there are also some classes of legitimate callers who are exempt from the DNC rules, so this isn’t foolproof).
- Report or forward the number (or text) from a potential scam. You can report it to the FTC via the DoNotCall website if you haven’t fallen for the scam, or the ReportFraud site if you have lost money. Other avenues for reporting scam callers are the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), and the customer care or fraud prevention teams at major companies like Apple, Amazon, or Microsoft.
- Contact your bank, the credit reporting agencies, and local law enforcement if you’ve lost money to scammers; or think you may have given up private information to them (leaving you vulnerable to identity theft). Spokeo has previously written about identity theft recovery in general, rebuilding your credit in the aftermath, and — if you’re really lucky — pressing charges against the identity thief. It’s outside the scope of this article, but useful information if you need it.
The key to not being victimized is a healthy degree of skepticism. Don’t take the caller’s word for things. Don’t click on links or scan QR codes. Don’t let panic (or greed) cloud critical thinking skills. Remember, Americans literally receive billions of scam phone calls every month. It’s not paranoia when they really are out to get you.
This story was produced by Spokeo and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
To Live and Die and Live is based on director and writer Qasim Basir’s journey with grief. Filmmaker Muhammad (Amin Joseph), has to return home to Detroit after the death of his stepfather. While having to deal with his stepfather’s funeral arrangements, he has to confront his own experiences with depression and addiction. He also meets Asia (Skye Marshall), a woman who just wants to have fun and live her life, causing him to question how he’s been living his own life.
Black Girl Nerds is so grateful to speak with Skye Marshall and Qasim Basir about their experience in making this film.This interview has been edited for time and clarity.
BGN: In the press release, Qasim, you named that witnessing George Floyd’s death during the pandemic was part of the influence when it comes to this film. My question is about the intentionality behind that as well as when it comes to writing and directing; Skye, when it comes to acting on a project where the pandemic is real.
Skye P. Marshall: I think one of my first scenes playing Asia was a night club scene. To have the real dancing energy there was so infectious! And actually helped my performance! He had all of our tested crew members surrounding me as background dancing and pointing their lights at me from their phones.
Qasim Bashir: The lights went out.
SM: That’s right! Isn’t that so creative? “Point your flash at Skye so she can be lit.” The fact that he was able to maneuver in the moment was butter for me. My scenes were all outside after that. So I felt safe. I felt protected. I got to experience Detroit for the first time in her new renaissance glory.
BGN: Qasim, what was it like for you, filming during that time?
QB: It was difficult, the physical nature of it. It was a lot to cover. Those years, as Black folks, we pushed some things down, in the way of just accepting you might get pulled over and humiliated by an officer or something. Then just go to school [or something] the next day like that never happened.
I had one small child, another baby on the way, that was born by one of our producers [Samantha Basir] in the middle of shooting. All of that contributed to this, like…oof. This is that, this is life, this is art, all happening right now. The story is about my stepfather who passed away and the week I came to town. But since that happened, while we were in post, my biological father died. My sister in law died. I lost two cousins. My uncle. We were like, “What is going on?” It was an intensely emotional time. I think what a lot of us do, we put it into the art.
SM: From the performer’s side, I will say, my brain doesn’t know all the time that I’m playing make-believe if I allow myself to use the right imagery. If I can relate to any form or fashion to that level of pain, that level of betrayal or uncertainty — which I have experienced consistently — if I allow myself to hijack the character, my body will literally start responding. The fact that I have [people watching me], it is in the carpool lane of healing. Through that honesty and vulnerability, my body releases the toxicity of pent up emotions.
Grief will never stop. No one really teaches you how to grieve. It’s easy for the mental health to break when you don’t know what to do with all these feelings. Like in the film, having to plan for a funeral, I just had to do this for my brother. But I still need to process, I still need to cry, but I gotta pay seven grand for this, and you want me to pick out a coffin and flowers? [Throws two middle fingers up] You can’t!
BGN: Speaking of grief and funerals, not only does this film do a great job of portraying the bureaucracy that often comes with death, this is one of the very few films I’ve seen the portrayal of Muslim funerals and Muslim burial processes. What stands out to me is when Muhmmad says, “You need less than three days to bury the body.” But less than twenty-four hours is most preferred for Muslim burials. Not only are there barriers when it comes to Black Muslim life, there are barriers when it comes to Black Muslim death. Qasim, it’s a recurring theme in your work done so beautifully. Skye, I’m curious about your perspective playing Asia, who is more spiritual than religious, as she has conversations with Muhammad.
QB: It should be that everyone should be able to tell their story. But that’s not the case. There is a tremendous imbalance in the way certain people have been portrayed. Some people have not been portrayed at all. Coming up in a community that is amongst that group that really never had a voice on screen, I feel a responsibility towards folks.
What more could you want to do than highlight [your community] and make them feel like they have a voice too? The more nuance we discuss through these characters, the more balance we can have in this world.
SM: Amen…Can I invest in your next project please?
[Everyone laughs joyfully]SM: [Qasim], your work is so intentional. And that’s what I want to be a part of. I’m happy to play the white lady’s best friend in all of these shows that I have done. But I have great creative teams that allow me to still be a strong character. Not just stare at the white gaze. I want to expand exactly what you’re speaking about. That was one of the most beautiful funeral scenes I’ve ever seen [in To Live and Die and Live]. The mother in the white, and the siblings! Ah! The music, the washing of [the stepfather’s body]. It was just phenomenal work.
BGN: What makes the intimate moments between Muhammad and Asia so important? Asia says, “I don’t need a doctor telling me I only have one or two months to live. I’m just gonna live.”
SM: The quote that you just stated, I live by that, prior to receiving Asia and after shooting [as] Asia. The work I was able to do with Amin Joseph in that scene in the hotel room, in the window, that was one of the most beautiful, most powerful scenes I ever done as an actor. We were just so free! That is a gift.
[Qasim’s writing] makes the characters so smart, even in the midst of tragedy. To be so smart and so lost at the same time. I think that’s what makes the chemistry so beautiful. We both had this wall, and we both found the crack in the castle wall.QB: She talks about the screenplay, but it does not matter if you don’t have performances like these.
To Live and Die and Live is currently playing in theaters.
The post Navigating Grief and Storytelling in ‘To Live and Die and Live’: A Conversation with Skye P. Marshall and Qasim Basir appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.
The first two series in AMC’s Anne Rice Immortal Universe were based directly on Rice’s series of novels, The Lives of the Mayfair Witches and The Vampire Chronicles. But for the third series, AMC is branching out into more unknown territory. Instead of basing it on a book, they are making a show about the secret organization of the Talamasca. That mysterious order ties Rice’s vampire world and her world of witches together. At a panel at ATX TV Festival, AMC Networks revealed first look photos of Anne Rice’s Talamasca, which is currently in production, and announced new cast members as well.
John Lee Hancock and Mark Lafferty, executive producers on Anne Rice’s Talamasca, revealed the new characters and cast updates. Joining the already-announced Elizabeth McGovern, William Fichtner, and Maisie Richardson-Sellers is Celine Buckens (Showtrial) rounding out the series’ regular cast. Joining as a guest star is Jason Schwartzman. Buckens stars as Doris, described as “Strong-willed and with an old soul, she lives with a coven of witches on a houseboat.” Meanwhile, Schwartzman portrays Burton, “A charming, rakish vampire, leading a cloistered life in a luxurious Upper West Side penthouse.” Both seem like original characters created for the show, and not from any one Anne Rice novel.
In Rice’s novels, the Talamasca is a very ancient and mysterious psychic order. They study (but never interfere) in supernatural happenings across the globe. Well, they rarely interfere, we should say. Although they never received their own novel, Rice finally revealed their origins in her 2014 novel Prince Lestat. She tied the beginnings of the Talamasca more strongly to the vampire species. However, the AMC shows often change much of the mythology Rice created for the television format. So it remains to be seen if any of that backstory will still be canon in the series. Anne Rice’s Talamasca still does not have a premiere date on AMC.
The post ANNE RICE’S THE TALAMASCA Reveals New Vampires and Witches, First Cast Photos appeared first on Nerdist.