What are Rockland County Area Codes?
Area codes are defined as the first set of three digits that start every North American telephone number. According to the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), each area has a minimum of one area code that serves a Numbering Plan Area (NPA). Area codes enable recipients to be able to determine the origin of calls. Reverse phone lookup services come in handy when looking to perform area code lookups for unknown area codes
Area Code 845
Area code 845 is the telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) that covers Rockland County, among other counties in the State of New York. It was created on June 5, 2000, as a split from most of the area code 914 territories. Area code 845 currently covers a total of 127 cities. In Rockland County, the cities covered include New City, Monsey, Nyack, Pearl River, Congers, etc.
Area Code 914
Area code 914 was among the first area codes set forth when the North American Numbering Plan was created in October 1947. After the splitting of area code 914 to form area code 845, the initial code 914 was retained by all cell phones already in use in the numbering plan area before the split. Area code 914 covers 67 cities, some of which include Somers, Rye, Amawalk, New York City, etc.
What Are the Best Cell Phone Plans in Rockland County?
The four major phone carriers in the United States are active in Rockland County. Among the four, T-Mobile has the widest coverage with 86%, compared to the coverage the other network providers offer. Sprint has the second-best coverage next to T-Mobile with 82% and Verizon follows after with 74% coverage. Lastly, AT&T has the least coverage among the four phone carriers in Rockland County with 62%. It is important to note that network quality may be influenced by certain factors, such as weather conditions and population density.
Based on the National Center of Health Statistics survey for 2018, an estimate of 38.8% of the New York adult population used only wireless telephones. In contrast, 6.0% of the adults used only landlines, while 22.4% used a combination of wireless telephones and landlines. Compared to the minors under age 18 in New York, 45.9% used only wireless telephone services in contrast to the 2.9% that only used landlines. 19% of the minors in New York used a combination of both wireless telephones and landlines. Judging from this survey, it is apparent that more adults and minors in New York prefer to use wireless phones compared to landlines.
Rockland County residents and businesses are gradually switching to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) from traditional telephony services. This switch is evidently a result of the quality of telephony services VoIP offers and the affordability of its services. VoIP uses active internet connections to transmit voice and multimedia data between users. VoIP is more cost-effective than traditional telephony services, provided both parties have stable internet connections. For instance, VoIP allows long-distance calls and video calls at very affordable prices and is more flexible than traditional telephony services.
What Are Rockland County Phone Scams?
Rockland County phone scams involve fraudulent schemes aimed at deceiving county residents and defrauding them of their hard-earned money. In other cases, phone scammers initiate conversations with residents over the phone and get them to give out their personal and financial information. The victims’ confidential information is then used for identity theft or to extort them. Phone scammers often take advantage of the advancement in telephony service technology to perpetrate their fraudulent schemes. For instance, they use VoIP to carry out Caller ID spoofing, where they impersonate legitimate entities and deceive their targets.
Likewise, these scammers use robocalls to reach several persons at an affordable cost. Free reverse phone number lookup services help uncover the identities of scammers and block them. Residents are advised to leverage these services and use them to conduct free suspicious phone number lookups when they receive calls from unfamiliar phone numbers. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) helps combat phone scams by creating awareness on common phone scams and how to identify them.
Scams commonly perpetrated in Rockland County include:
What are Social Security Administration Scams?
Social Security Administration scams are quite prevalent in Rockland County. These scams involve scammers impersonating Social Security officials and threatening to suspend victims’ accounts if they do not send money. These scammers sometimes go as far as spoofing legitimate Social Security Administration employees’ Caller IDs. Residents that receive such calls should hang up and not give out their personal information or make any form of payment. Social Security Administration scam calls should also be promptly reported to the law enforcement agent closest to you. It is important to note that the Social Security Administration or other government agencies never calls to request payment or confidential information over the phone. Also, in a case where the call does not show a spoofed Caller ID, do a phone number search to uncover the scammer’s identity. Residents can report Social Security Administration phone scams via the Social Security Administration's website.
What are Grandparents Scams?
Grandparents’ scams target older residents. These scams involve scammers stealing the identities of the grandchildren of aged persons and soliciting immediate financial assistance from them to settle emergencies. These scammers mostly request payment via wire transfer devices, gift cards, prepaid cards, or in some cases, an arrangement is made to get the money at the target’s residence. These payment methods are difficult to track and processing a refund may be impossible. Avoid giving out personal information or sending money when unsure of the call’s source. A reverse phone lookup service can be used to conduct a phone number search to identify the call’s source.
What are IRS Scams?
IRS scams involve fraudsters stealing the identities of IRS officers and contacting residents out of the blue, claiming that they owe money to the IRS. The trick is to threaten their targets to send them money for taxes, penalties, or fees that they actually do not owe to avoid grievous consequences, such as deportation or arrest. Sometimes, the scammers ask for targets’ credit card or debit card numbers over the phone or payment via gift cards, iTunes cards, or prepaid debit cards. Note that calls like this are not from the IRS, as the IRS never contacts taxpayers out of the blue. They rather first prompt the calls with emails if at all they intend to call individuals.
Some websites offer reverse phone lookup free, you can unveil the identity of the scammer by conducting a phone number search through any of these websites. You can report IRS scams online to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) or by calling TIGTA at 1-800-366-4484.
What are Rockland County Sheriff Department Scams?
In these scams, scammers impersonate officers with the Rockland County Sheriff Department or City Police Departments. They call residents, demanding that they make certain payments through gift cards for warrants that were issued. To scare victims and make them act in the spur of the moment, the scammers use aggressive tones and threaten that if the payments are not made, they will be arrested. It is important to note that scammers mostly duplicate the phone numbers of law enforcement agents in the county before calling their targets. Hence, residents should beware of spoofed calls that impersonate law enforcement agents.
The Rockland County Sheriff states that the department will never contact anyone by phone and demand money from them to avert an arrest on a warrant or grant bail. The Sheriff's Office announced that persons who receive such calls should try and get as many details as possible from the call. After which it will be reported to the department at 845-638-5400, while also providing the Caller ID the scammer used in contacting you. In addition, do not give out any sensitive information or make payment during or after the call.
What are Robocalls and Spam Calls?
Pre-recorded calls sent with autodialers to a large number of people at the same time are referred to as robocalls. Although some robocalls contain prompts to transfer recipients to live agents, legitimate robocalls are mostly sent to disseminate vital information to members of the public. Examples of Legitimate robocalls are:
- Solely informational robocalls
- Robocalls for debt collection
- Robocalls from legitimate charities
- Political calls
- Calls from some health workers.
Like most telephony innovations, scammers have begun to take advantage of robocalls to steal unsuspecting residents’ personal and financial information. These scam robocalls also sometimes aim to advertise bogus offers to their targets to defraud them. Robocalls of this nature can be classified as spam calls. Spam calls are unwanted calls, sent to deliver irrelevant messages to call recipients.
To avoid falling victim to robocalls and spam call scams, here are some precautions you can take:
- Use reverse phone lookup websites or mobile applications to spot these calls and block them.
- Hang up immediately you discover that you have picked a robocall. In addition, do not follow the prompts given during calls even if the prompts are to opt-out of receiving such calls. Note that in scam robocalls, this may be a trick by the scammers to spot active numbers and target them with more unsolicited calls.
- Add your telephone number to the National Do Not Call Registry to put a restriction on robocalls and other unsolicited calls.
- Log a complaint on illegal robocalls online through the FTC’s online complaint assistant or call 1-888-382-1222.
How to Spot and Report Rockland County Phone Scams?
In recent times, phone scams have become ubiquitous. Hence, county residents must be vigilant and apply caution while receiving calls, even if the calls are from familiar numbers, as the phone numbers of legitimate entities can be duplicated by scammers. Below are some red flags that help identify scams:
- Calls from supposed government agencies, demanding payment - Government agencies never request payment over the phone. Immediately hang up and report the call to a law enforcement agency in the county.
- Calls from unfamiliar phone numbers - Reverse phone lookup services can be used to perform phone number lookups to identify the persons behind such calls. This service can also be used to block the caller’s phone number. Alternatively, get in touch with your phone network service provider for call blocking options.
- Calls requesting your personal or financial details - Hang up the call immediately and do not share your personal or financial details with anyone. Besides, you may find out who called you by performing a reverse phone look up.
- A call where you are told to keep certain details of the calls secret - Hang up and share the details with trusted family members or friends. Check out the callers’ background information by doing a free phone number lookup by name.
- Calls requesting payment before certain “prizes” are won - Hang up the call immediately and do not make any form of payment or give out your financial details.
County residents can report phone scams to these government agencies:
Rockland County Sheriff’s Department - Contact the Sheriff’s Office at (845) 638-5400 to report scams or report the scam in-person by visiting:
Rockland County Sheriff’s Department
55 New Hempstead Road
New City, NY 10956
New York State Division of Consumer Protection - Report a scam by filing a complaint with the Division.
Federal Trade Commission - Provides information on how to spot common phone scams and avoid unsolicited calls, robocalls, and phone scams. Scam victims can report such incidents through the FTC’s online consumer complaint assistant. Residents can also register on the National Do Not Call Registry to restrict unsolicited calls.
Federal Communications Commission - Provides information on identifying Caller ID spoofing and enabling call blocking on their cell phones. Scam victims can report illegal caller ID spoofing and other phone scams online by filling out the complaint form.
Better Business Bureau New York - Use the Scam Tracker to keep yourself updated about trending scams.