Political polls have been a major part of our election process for many years.  Generally, people are contacted by telephone to answer questions about the candidates and their policies.  Because it is so common at this time of year to be called by a political pollster, scammers also will call posing as pollsters in an effort to trick their victims into providing information that can be used for purposes of identity theft.  Often they will dangle the reward of a gift card or other prize to lure people into participating in the scam poll.  Scammers can also manipulate your Caller ID through a technique called “spoofing” to make it appear that their calls are coming from legitimate pollsters.

TIPS

Legitimate pollsters do not offer prizes or other compensation for participating in their polls.  They also will never ask for personal information such as your Social Security number, credit card number or banking information.  Anyone posing as a pollster asking for such information is a scammer and you should hang up immediately.