What are Schenectady County Area Codes?
There are two area codes covering Schenectady County. These are area codes 518 and 838. Area codes are three-digit numeric designations for numbering plan areas (NPAs). Following the creation of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) in 1947, the United States was divided into NPAs and these were assigned 86 area codes. This system simplified call switching and routing across North American phone networks. Every phone number issued in the United States is associated with an area code. The area code in a 10-digit US phone number is represented by the first three numbers.
Area Code 518
This is one of the original 86 area codes created alongside the NANP in 1947. It covered the northeastern part of New York state and has never been split. Area code 518 serves 20 counties in the state including Schenectady County. Communities in Schenectady County covered by area code 518 include Schenectady, Rotterdam, and Duanesburg.
Area Code 838
This is an overlay code that came into service on September 19, 2017. It is an overlay code for area code 518 and serves the same communities in Schenectady County.
What are the Best Cell Phone Plans in Schenectady County?
A 2018 wireless substitution survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics indicated that most of the residents of New York state use both landline and wireless phones for their telecommunication needs. The results of the survey showed that 38.8% of the adult residents of the state used wireless phones exclusively while 6% of them indicated that they still used landline phones exclusively. Among minors in New York state, 45.9% of the demographic were wireless-exclusive phone users while 2.9% used landline phones alone.
All the major national carriers as well as regional carriers provide phone services in Schenectady County and the rest of the state. Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile have network services covering 97% of the state’s zip codes. Regional carriers are usually Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs). These rely on the network infrastructures of national carriers and buy network services from them in bulk. MVNOs can offer cheaper cell phone plans in Schenectady County because they pass on some of the savings from the bulk purchases to their subscribers.
Besides landline and cell phone service providers, residents of Schenectady County can also sign up for cell phone services from VoIP service providers. Voice over Internet Protocol is a communication technology that enables the transmission of voice signals over the internet as data packets. For businesses and residents with broadband internet access, VoIP phone plans are more affordable than landline and cell phone plans. VoIP phone calls are also cheaper for long-distance calls and teleconferencing.
What are Schenectady County Phone Scams?
These are telephone frauds committed in Schenectady County or targeting its residents and local businesses. Fraudsters running phone scams contact their victims by calling or texting them. They may also use robocalls, caller ID spoofing, spam calls, and phishing to trick their victims. The goals of phone scammers are to defraud unsuspecting phone users and steal their confidential personal information.
Residents of Schenectady can fight back against phone scams and avoid scammers with tools like call blocking and reverse phone number lookup. In addition to these tools, they also need to learn about telephone frauds commonly reported in their communities. The Bureau of Consumer Frauds and Protection, a section of the Economic Justice Division of the New York State Office of the Attorney General identifies the following as the most common phone scams in New York State: prize/lottery/sweepstakes scams, advance fee loan frauds, work-at-home scams, travel/vacation scams.
What are Schenectady County Prize/Lottery/Sweepstakes Scams?
Fraudsters running these scams contact their targets to tell them they have won free prizes, lotteries, or sweepstakes. After getting victims excited about their winnings, they tell them to pay certain amounts before claiming their winnings. These amounts, they claim, are to cover taxes and other processing fees. Residents of Schenectady should be wary of callers informing they have won free gifts, prizes, or lotteries. In most cases, victims did not enter competitions, sweepstakes, and lotteries that fraudsters convince them they won.
Before you get too excited about a stranger promising you a huge windfall, search their number using reverse phone lookup. This may reveal that the number used is not associated with the lottery organizer or the company they claim is offering free gifts and prizes. A lookup search may also reveal that the number used by the caller was previously flagged for reported scams. Schenectady County residents should also know that it is illegal for anyone to ask winners of lotteries, sweepstakes, and free gifts for advance payment before awarding their winnings.
What are Schenectady County Advance Fee Loan Scams?
Like lottery and sweepstakes scams, advance fee loan scams involve fraudsters tricking unsuspecting residents into sending money with the hope of getting lots more. In these cases, scammers promise to get loans for their victims but require advance fees to pay for their services and cover processing fees. Residents of Schenectady County should learn to avoid those asking for money for the promise of more money. They do not need intermediaries to get government loans and should not listen to callers claiming to be government officials asking for advance fees to process loans. Rather than sending money to a stranger calling to offer a loan, investigate them further with a suspicious phone number lookup search.
What are Schenectady County Work-at-Home Scams?
These are also frauds targeting residents who are struggling to make ends meet after losing their jobs. In these scams, fraudsters target those looking for work. They promise these unsuspecting residents that they can find job opportunities for them that only require working from home. After paying these fraudsters, they can only provide jobs that pay a pittance or none at all. Make sure to research every work-at-home opportunity you receive. Go online and read real testimonials from those who signed up for such opportunities. If the caller promising these opportunities claims to work for a recruitment agency, make sure to verify their credentials. Identify them with phone number lookup to confirm that their phone numbers are listed for the agency they claim to represent.
What are Schenectady County Travel/Vacation Scams?
Travel and vacation scams involve fraudsters and dishonest travel agencies promising free vacations and heavily discounted travel packages. Do not jump at a low-cost vacation offer for your dream destination without first confirming all the details. Some of such cheap packages have hidden fees and vague terms that will surprise vacationers only after they have signed up for the deals. To achieve their low prices, these deals may fail to include return tickets, hotel accommodations, or sightseeing tours.
The first step to avoiding travel and vacation scams is confirming the identity of the caller and determining that they indeed represent the agencies offering such deals. You can do this with reverse phone lookup. Alternatively, call the travel agency in question and enquire about the offer as well as the representative that contacted you. If you sign up for the offer, make sure to only pay the travel agency with a credit card rather than the call with cash or wire transfer.
What are Robocalls and Spam Calls?
Robocalls and spam calls are unwanted phone calls usually placed in bulk to long lists of phone numbers. Robocalls are legitimate mass communication tools used by telemarketers, political groups, and organizations that send out public service announcements. They are easy to set up and use, requiring auto-dialers to place calls that deliver pre-recorded messages. The ease of contacting a large audience with robocalls makes them appealing to scammers looking for new victims.
Spam calls are also commonly used by scammers and dishonest telemarketers. These unsolicited calls are usually placed by humans delivering messages according to prepared scripts. With the huge number of spam calls and robocalls received by American phone users every year, there is a growing movement to find lasting solutions to these unwanted calls. However, before such solutions are effectively implemented, Schenectady County residents can take the following steps to stop or reduce the number of robocalls and spam calls they receive:
- Hang up a call as soon as you discover it is a robocall or spam call
- Disregard instructions provided during such calls about removing your number from their call lists. Such prompts are put in place to confirm live numbers and sell them to other scammers and spammers
- Do not trust your phone’s caller ID to correctly identify unknown callers. Scammers routinely use caller ID spoofing to impersonate loved ones and authority figures to get their targets to pick the phone
- Set up the call blocking feature of your phone to filter calls from unknown numbers or blacklisted ones. Alternatively, ask your carrier for call blocking features. Third-party call blocking apps are another option. Make sure to choose a well-reviewed one from your phone’s app store
- Identity unknown callers with reverse phone number lookup. This can help confirm the identities of scammers, spammers, and stalkers. Include the information gathered to police reports and complaints submitted to law enforcement
- Add your phone numbers to the National Do Not Call Registry to stop receiving unsolicited calls from telemarketers. Dishonest telemarketers and scammers do not obey the rules of this registry and will still call you even after registering your number. Calls from these entities are illegal and should be reported
How to Spot and Report Schenectady County Phone Scams
Phone scammers tweak their schemes as soon as they realize most of their targets are catching on. However, their goals still remain defrauding their victims and stealing confidential personal information. Therefore, there are only so many ways they can spin their lies. As most new scams are simply variations of old cons, residents of Schenectady County can easily spot them by learning as much as they can about phone scams. When on the phone with strangers, they should be wary and look out for the following signs of telephone fraud:
- Threats - scammers impersonating authority figures are quick to threaten their victim to get them to comply. They will threaten immediate arrest, prosecution, deportation, or revocation of driver’s, professional, and business license
- Aggressive sales tactics - fraudsters do not want their targets to take too long thinking about their bogus offers. They prefer to close consumer transactions quickly and will claim their attractie business and investment offers are only available for a limited time or offer even steeper discounts for those signing up immediately
- Requesting payment by unofficial means - when requesting payment for bogus fines, debts, overdue bills, owed taxes, and advance fees, scammers ask for these in cash or by wire transfer, prepaid debit cards, gift cards, Venmo transfers, or cryptocurrencies. Legitimate organizations do not accept payments via such channels
- Inability to provide backing documents - when asked, scammers cannot provide written documentation supporting their claims, outlining their offers, and verifying their identities
Residents alerted by these signs should try to identify those calling them with phone number lookup searches. However, scammers hide their numbers using caller ID spoofing. It is important to report all phone scams whether they are successful or not. Such reports help consumer protection agencies and law enforcement apprehend and prosecute fraudsters. They are also useful for increasing public awareness about emerging and prevailing scam trends. Those living in Schenectady County can report phone scams to the following agencies:
- The Bureau of Consumer Frauds and Protection of the New York State Office of the Attorney General - this agency protects residents from telemarketing frauds and investigates claims of telephone frauds. Residents of Schenectady County can file complaints about consumer and phone scams to the Bureau by calling (800) 771-7755
- The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) - the FTC investigates trade disputes and consumer scams affecting American consumers. If a fraud involves one party failing to provide goods or services after receiving payment, it can be reported to the FTC. Free gift, prize, lottery, and sweepstakes scams can also be reported to this agency. Submit a scam report to the FTC by calling (877) 382-4357 or filing a fraud complaint online
- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) - this federal regulator oversees all communication in the country including the use and misuse of telephone services and tools. Illegal robocalls, spam calls, caller ID spoofing, and phishing can be reported to the FCC. Residents of Schenectady County can also report scams involving these tools to the FCC’s Consumer Complaint Center