Scammers are calling satellite broadcast company DirecTV subscribers, posing as DirecTV employees and attempting to lure the customers into signing up for money saving new service packages. Through a technique called “spoofing” the scammers are able to make the intended victim’s Caller ID indicate that the call is originating from DirecTV although it is not. The calls are bogus. An indication that the call is from a scammer is that the scammer asks for payment to be made through gift cards. Unsuspecting DirecTV customers victimized by the scam end up losing money through the gift cards and getting nothing in return.
DirecTV has responded to this scam with the following statement: “If any customer feels a call or email is not legitimate, we encourage them to call the number on their bill and ask Customer Care if the offer is valid. To help protect customers, we monitor for potential fraud activity and provide information about fraud scams on our website. Customers should be skeptical about any promotion from any company where a gift card is required.”
TIPS
As I always say, “trust me, you can’t trust anyone.” Whenever you receive a phone call, you can never be sure who is really calling you. Never give personal information such as credit card information to anyone on the phone who calls you unless you have verified that the call is legitimate. If you receive a call appearing to be from a company with which you do business asking for personal information, hang up and call the real company at a telephone number that you know is accurate to find out whether or not the call was a scam. As for gift cards, no legitimate company nor governmental agencies, such as the IRS will ever ask for payment by way of gift cards so whenever you are asked to provide a gift card as the method of payment for a service or a debt, you can be sure that it is a scam.