‘Can you hear me?’ phone scam

What’s the threat?

An alleged scam in which criminals phone you up to ask “Can you hear me?”. They record your reply, in the hope you say “yes” so they can use the recording to make unauthorised purchases in your name over the phone.

We say this is an ‘alleged’ scam because there’s much doubt about whether it’s actually happening. After it was reported in the US in February, call-blocking companies in the UK said it’s likely to spread across the Atlantic. But the excellent Snopes.com, which debunks internet rumours and urban myths, said that it can’t imagine how a scammer could pay for items using a recording of someone’s voice. It also pointed out that the supposed victims of the scam said only that they had been asked the question “Can you hear me?”, and not that items had been bought in their name.

Furthermore, three leading US consumer organisations – the Better Business Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Consumer Federation of America – said there was no evidence the scam was real. Snopes.com concluded that the reports were “more a suggestion of a hypothetical crime scheme than a real one that is actually robbing victims of money” (read more at www.snipca.com/23698).

What should you do?

So if it’s not a scam, why are we including it here? Well, there’s a reason why you should avoid answering “yes” – or indeed saying anything – to a question from someone you don’t know. It’s because some telemarketing companies phone people en masse to check whether their list of numbers remains valid. Hearing a human on the end of the line means another potential customer they can continue to pester.

The solution is to be aware of the tactic so you can avoid responding to the question, and to similar queries such as “Are you the homeowner?”