Telemarketing warning

Robocall scams are getting more creative, authorities warn.

An Orlando number on Evan Dimov’s caller ID and a confident voice on the other line had the restaurant owner convinced he was in imminent danger of having his power shut off.

When the caller asked for a Western Union money order, Dimov grew suspicious and called his utility, Orlando Utilities Commission, to verify.

It was a scammer, one of many inundating phones nationwide with increasingly convincing pitches and tricks.

Robocalls are on the rise, powered by an increase in “spoofing” local numbers for caller IDs. Spoofing makes it seem as if you’re getting a local call, even if the calls are placed online from the other side of the world.

Phone number spoofing has been a legal practice for decades, often used by large companies, schools or governments so that all numbers coming from one building appear to be from one number.

In the early 2000s Internet-based calling allowed web users to start using spoofing to alter or hide caller IDs, through companies like Star38.com and Spoofcard.com. Telemarketers quickly adopted the practice. But sometime earlier this year, scammers latched on to spoofing.

A Federal Trade Commission representative told a Senate Committee earlier this month that the number of robocall complaints through the first nine months of 2017 has already surpassed the total from all of 2016. They pointed to phone number spoofing as a major concern because the scammers and telemarketers circumvent laws and anti-spamming measures, such as the National Do Not Call Registry.

The FTC and the Florida Attorney General’s Office wrapped up a case in June against an Orlando-based company, Payless Solutions, that pitched “worthless credit card interest rate reduction programs,” according to an FTC news release.

Regulators sued Payless Solutions for using robocallers to call consumers and convince them to sign up for a debt-reduction program, which charged $300 to $4,999 up front. Regulators won $4.9 million in judgments against 12 people charged in the case and banned 10 of them from using robocall technology again.

Using Internet-based calling, the scammers can now call thousands of numbers in a short period of time and give the impression that the calls are from people that live nearby.

Usually the callers are phishing for information, Salmons said. Common calls include pitches for health care coverage or credit card debt reduction. Callers are looking for credit card numbers, Social Security numbers or addresses.

Most of the time, it’s a recorded message, reducing the manpower required make the calls.

Salmons recommends ignoring the phone calls and sending them straight to voicemail.