You're a victim with one word in 'Can you hear me?' phone scam
SEATTLE — A growing "Can you hear me?" phone scam can make you a victim if you utter just one word: "Yes."
This is how it works, according to the Better Business Bureau:
An automated call provides an introduction and identifies a business or agency. After the intro, the recording will ask if you can hear clearly.
If you answer yes, the scammer behind the call may have recorded you, could plan to use your affirmation to sign you up for a product or service you never knew about and then will demand payment. If you refuse, the scammer may produce your recorded "yes" response to confirm your purchase agreement.
The best advice from the BBB:
• Hang up on any unsolicited robocall. If you are on the federal Do Not Call List and a company calls out of the blue to ask questions, it's likely a scam.
• Avoid responding with "yes," "sure" or "OK."
• Hang up if you're asked to press a button to be placed on the Do Not Call registry. Doing anything else could help scammers identify an active phone number. No government agency will ever solicit for the Do Not Call Registry.
• Write down the phone number and file a scam report with the BBB Scam Tracker and the Federal Trade Commission's Do Not Call List.
College students are prime targets of ID thieves, scammers
That doesn't always help because these scammers also often know how to fool phones' caller ID features.
But 10 states — Hawaii with the caveat of having the recording device in a private place; California; Connecticut; Florida; Maryland; Massachusetts; Montana; New Hampshire; Pennsylvania and Washington — have a two-party consent law for recording a conversation, making it a crime to intercept or record a call or conversation unless all parties say yes. Illinois also has the law on its books, but a court found it unconstitutional in 2014, according to the Digital Media Law Project.
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Robocalls are worse than annoying — they're likely scams