“Free phone” scams are becoming more and more common, and there are new scams to watch out for. In this version, a brand new cell phone is left on your doorstep and, unusually, the scammer did not use your money to purchase the phone.
This is just the latest in a long line of scams where new cell phones are delivered to your home.
Typical “free phone” scam
In a typical toll-free phone scam, a scammer impersonates you and contacts your mobile phone company to order a new phone. Your carrier will send a call to your address, but scammers know the call is coming, so they aim to hang out near your home to deliver the package before you do.
This is essentially a type of porch piracy where the scammer knows in advance what is in the package and when it will arrive, and in this case it is the scammer who receives the free phone call.
You can limit this risk by ensuring you use 2FA protection on your mobile account and all other available accounts.
Another classic is have After ordering a phone, the company providing the phone called me and claimed that they had mistakenly sent me the wrong phone and instructed me to return it. In reality, you are sending a brand new phone to a scammer.
The latest “free phone” scam
CNET We are reporting a new type of toll-free phone scam that we have never encountered before.
In this version, a package addressed to you will arrive at your door containing a phone you did not order. They hope that some people will be grateful for their good fortune, turn on their phones and configure all their personal data.
Activate your phone and enter your personal information. Then it locks, freezes, and goes dark. You are now an alarmist with a useless phone and the scammers out there have your personal information.
This article also outlined other phone scams. Expert advice: If you receive an unexpected package, don’t get involved with it.
“Connection means plugging it in, turning it on, scanning a QR code, or inserting a SIM card,” Coughlin says. “Any of these could give scammers access to your account, identity, and phone number.”
He added: “We’ve seen cheap phones pre-loaded with malware and SIM cards designed to route fraud through a user’s name or QR code drop a credential-stealing page on the device the moment it’s scanned. So leave it alone.”
Have you come across any other particularly creative or malicious scams? Please share them in the comments.
Photo by James A. Molnar on Unsplash
