Despite what the person on the phone says, you might not have anything wrong with your computer or TV. In fact, they might be trying to steal money from you. To avoid being scammed by phony customer support, I listen for some big red flags.
6Asking for Too Much Personal Information
Customer support teams will need to ask you for some personal information. For example, they might need to know your computer’s serial number. However, anything they ask for will relate to your device and go no further than that.
You will never hear technical customer support ask you for banking information, your home address, or account logins. These kinds of details are seldom relevant to tech support issues; be especially wary during calls you didn’t initiate.
Beware of callers knowing too much about you, too. Scammers can take advantage of your social media profiles.
5Unknown Numbers
I never answer unknown callers unless they leave a voicemail. If they don’t leave any information, I assume they weren’t calling about anything important. I’ve used this zero-trust policy since 2017, and I can count the number of times the caller was legitimate on one hand.
Customer support teams might call you back if you’ve already contacted them. But in most cases, I think this method is outdated. I can contact someone directly if needed with social media, chatbots, and numerous other support systems.
This is one of the best ways to tell if the number calling you is a phone scam. Some carriers provide a “Scam Likely” warning that you should take seriously. If needed, you can do reverse lookups on your own.
4Requesting Payments
A technical support team isn’t going to ask you for a payment over the phone, especially if they claim to help you fix your washing machine. This is one of the most certain signs a caller is trying to scam you, and you should avoid handing over any information.
If you need to pay for a repair, the support team will normally do this safely and away from the phone.
Take action to limit the damage if you already handed over your personal information. Cancel any cards associated with your bank account and inform your bank. Beware of fake test transactions, too.
3Voice Glitches
While AI video call scams have become more prevalent, you still need to be careful when taking audio calls. The good news is that you can identify fake customer support calls—even if they use advanced technology.
Voice glitches are a strong sign that someone is trying to scam me. They often sound robotic, unlike when a person stutters or similar human slip-ups. Though many companies use automated voice calling, this normally only occurs when you initially ring. If glitches happen during the call, you can be sure that someone is trying to scam you.
2The Other Person Sounding Hesitant
Though nobody’s speech is perfect 100% of the time, scammers might not always be composed when confronted. If a caller asks for personal information, ask why they need it. If they sound hesitant, I recommend hanging up the phone and reporting them.
Someone impersonating customer support might also sound hesitant when they call you initially. This could be because they don’t know their lines or are nervous. You should treat these as red flags—legitimate customer service agents have no reason to sound scared.
1Being Overly Formal
Some customer support teams will be formal and call me “Sir,” so this isn’t a guaranteed scam. However, I am always skeptical if an individual is overly formal (i.e., not speaking as an ordinary person would).
Be very careful if someone is being too polite. You can normally tell if someone is genuine, so this should be pretty easy to identify. If your gut tells you something is wrong, you should get out of that situation.
Fake customer support scams can be incredibly damaging and sometimes hard to spot. However, I can usually identify these issues with a couple of tactics. Watch out for bluffs and requests for too much information.
