Happy Protect Your Identity Week

The week of October 20 – 27 is national Protect Your Identity Week!  Here at Pindrop, we are celebrating this week by giving a few tips from the FCC’s Caller ID and Spoofing protection guidelines.  Please check out the entire guide here to read about the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009, telemarketer’s rules, and rules for blocking/unblocking your telephone number among others.  Remember, it’s very easy for someone to block their caller ID or spoof their call to be someone else.

Tips for Consumers

• Don’t give out personal information in response to an incoming call.  Identity thieves are clever – they often pose as representatives of banks, credit card companies, creditors, or government agencies to get people to reveal their account numbers, Social Security numbers, mother’s maiden names, passwords and other identifying information.
• If you get an inquiry from a company or government agency seeking personal information, don’t provide it.  Instead, hang up and call the phone number on your account statement, in the phone book, or on the company’s or government agency’s website to find out if the entity that supposedly called you actually needs the requested information from you.
• Please let the FCC know about ID spoofers by calling 1-888-CALL-FCC or  filing a complaint at fcc.gov/complaints.

For more tips, specifically when dealing with spam or “robo” calls, check out this Credit.com blog post, which includes advice from Pindrop Security’s own Matt Anthony.