Spoofing calls and emails can be a nuisance to deal with at best, and at the worst, you could end up getting scammed. Whether it’s somebody trying to play a prank that simply isn’t’ funny anymore, a persistent salesperson trying to sell you something that you don’t want or need, or emails that you think might end up putting a virus on your computer, how do you deal with them? Nobody likes to deal with spoofing calls, but if you’re not sure where they are coming from, it can be difficult to try and get them to stop. Try the following steps:
Article Breakdown
Google Search:
Your first step should be to conduct a quick Google search of the phone number or email address that is contacting you to try and see if you can find out who it belongs to.
If the phone number or email address belongs to a business, it’s likely that the business name will appear in the search, allowing you to get in touch with them and request to be removed from the mailing list.
If it’s an individual who is calling or emailing, finding their information this way might be more difficult, however, if their contact information is associated with a social media profile you might get lucky.
Nuwber:
Nuwber is a useful people search tool that you can use to reverse lookup a phone number that is contacting you and find out who it belongs to.
When you enter the number into the search bar and hit search, you will get identifying information on the person who owns the number, including their name and address.
You can also access other records about them such as criminal and arrest records, which can be useful if you suspect that somebody is trying to scam you or commit another sort of crime via the spoof calls. You can also use the service to find out who owns an email address that you don’t recognize if you have received any suspicious or spoof emails.
Law Enforcement:
If all else fails, it might be worth considering taking your situation to the police, especially if you think that somebody is trying to scam you, hack into your computer, or is stalking you.
The police have sophisticated systems to track callers and email senders which they can use to detect who is spoofing you and find out what is going on. Of course, there are many other options where you can find out who is calling or emailing you yourself, so try these first before you go to law enforcement.
But if you feel afraid for your safety or think that you have been scammed, contact the police as soon as possible and they will be able to help you find the culprit.
Avoiding Spoof Calls and Emails:
Tightening up your security is key to avoiding spoof calls and emails. While there is no foolproof way to make sure that you never receive them again, you can filter them out so that you don’t have to deal with them.
Use a good email provider that will send any spoof emails straight to the spam folder and automatically delete them and be selective about who you answer the phone too. If you don’t recognize a number, it is best to perform a reverse lookup search to find out who’s calling you before deciding whether or not to call them back.