CALLS: What’s with all the spam?

We’re talking about phone calls, not the pork in the can.

We thought it was just us, but over the past few days, folks throughout northern and northwestern Pennsylvania got hit with repeated spam calls. The Erie Times News had a story saying perhaps hundreds of customers of Verizon and Spectrum in Erie, Crawford and Mercer counties got slammed with the nuisance calls.

One customer they interviewed had calls coming every five to 10 minutes, and most were about suspicious charges on Amazon accounts. Many of the victims didn’t even have Amazon accounts, the story read.

“The scammers are hoping you press 1 to talk with a representative and provide personal information, such as a credit card number,” the story read.

Some of us at The Era had floods of spam calls coming in to our cellphones, too. While the calls appeared to be from local numbers, the caller ID option on the cellphones identified the calls as Spam Risk.

Scammers can use technology to fake the name or number on your caller ID, the Federal Trade Commission said on its website.

There are some ways to filter out these calls. FTC officials recommend using call-blocking technology from your phone service provider. It is available for landlines, cell phones and Voice Over the Internet Protocol service.

Sign up for the Do Not Call registry with the FTC, although we’re on it and we’re still getting calls.

According to the FTC, “If you receive a robocall trying to sell you something (and you haven’t given the caller your written permission), it’s an illegal call. You should hang up. Then, file a complaint with the FTC and the National Do Not Call Registry.”

More information is available on the FTC’s webpage, or by calling 877-382-4357.