Can you hear me now?

There’s a new telephone scam that starts with just a couple of lines. You answer your phone with a hello. The person on the other line says, “can you hear me? Can you hear me now?” When you say yes, that’s all the scammer on the other end of the call needs.

These scammers identify themselves as a business but, of course, they’re in the scam business. People participate in the call for a while and give a credit card number based on false information. That card number is then used by the scammers. When victims go to dispute the charges, the scammers use the answer to the question "can you hear me now" as an authorization of the purchases made on the credit card.

The Better Business Bureau first warned the public of this newest scam in October 2016, but local authorities around the US have recently picked it up and warned their citizens to be extra vigilant with every phone call they receive.

At TransNexus, we know how devastating telecom fraud can be to both individuals and organizations. A new technology is being developed for organizations that will solve the problem of spoofed calling numbers, which is utilized by a number of these criminals. The new technology, SHAKEN, has strong support from the FCC and is expected to be adopted by telephone companies in 2018. If you’re ready to talk about reputation services and fraud prevention for your company, contact us today!