Every year, billions of unwanted phone calls are placed to unsuspecting Americans. In 2024, the Federal Trade Commission reported that consumers lost more than $12.5 billion collectively to fraud, a 25% jump from the prior year.
Imposter scams accounted for nearly $3 billion of that total. Among people who reported losing money to a scam that started with a phone call, the average loss per person was $3,690.
The numbers are alarming, and what has actually changed is the sophistication of the scams behind them. The old generation of phone fraud featured an immediate ask, barely coherent script, and obvious pressure to take action. Now scams are more patient. A calm voice from what appears to be a real company number, a plausible reason for phoning, and a willingness to hold a conversation before making any type of ask.
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short sequence of steps that take just about two minutes and actually help determine whether the person calling you is a scammer.
Spokeo has assembled this list using data and advice from leading institutions including the Federal Trade Commission, AARP, the Better Business Bureau, and the Federal Communications Commission to help you avoid becoming a victim to a fraudulent call.
Why “just hang up” isn’t enough anymore
Before diving into the roadmap, it’s worth outlining why the strategy of old doesn’t hold up today. The short answer is that the advice made sense for a simpler era. When calls followed the same structure of pressure, bad script, and quick ask, it all took about 30 seconds. Typically, callers would demand you wire money to avoid arrest, in order to quickly cause an emotional reaction in the hopes you agree and don’t think.
Modern scam calls are designed to sustain a conversation as opposed to ending it quickly. After all, a caller impersonating a utility company’s billing department wouldn’t demand payment right away. They would first establish context, confirm information they seemingly would have if they are who they say, and create a subtle problem that needs to be solved over multiple interactions. This makes just hanging up difficult for anybody, since it sounds plausible and could be real.
Artificial intelligence has also accelerated the professionalization of these scam scripts. A CBS News report outlined how Americans are now getting 2.5 billion robocalls a month. AI tools help scammers generate call scripts from aggregated data breaches and create personalized approaches that potentially even utilize real data like the last four digits of your account number.
The friction that used to separate fake calls from real ones is disappearing. What hasn’t changed is the underlying structure of the scam, and this playbook can give you the tools you need to identify what is real and what isn’t.
Step 1: Listen for pacing and pressure cues
The first 30 seconds of an unfamiliar call will contain more information than you think. While the content of what a caller says is easy to script, the pacing and emotional register of the call are harder to fake. Scammers work on a quick volume. They can’t actually spend a large amount of time on the call, which means the pressure to move towards an ask is usually detectable in how quickly they try to establish urgency or discomfort.
A real business call will not require you to make a decision during that call. It’s meant to convey information and offer ways to follow up. A scammer needs you to stay on the line and comply before you have time to think more about the situation. The urgency is always the tell.
Tip: Let the caller finish their opening statement without interrupting them. Then, follow up and ask for their name and the best number to reach them if you get disconnected. A real caller will answer without hesitation, but a scammer may resist a callback question.
Warning Sign: Any suggestion that you need to act right away, have to stay on the line, or avoid hanging up to keep your account in good standing is a pressure tactic. Legitimate callers don’t require you to stay on an active call to receive what they’re offering.
Step 2: Ask the caller to verify one detail about you
This is arguably the single most effective in-call verification step you have, but almost nobody thinks to use it.
The idea is extremely simple. Rather than being the one to answer all the questions and providing information, reverse the direction of the conversation. If a caller claims they represent your bank, employer, insurance company, or any organization you’re affiliated with, ask them to confirm something personal about you.
For example, ask questions like “What was the last transaction on my account?” or “What is the service address associated with this account?” While they may still be able to access the information as a scammer, it can give you a leaning indicator of whether they’re real or not.
The FTC’s 2025 guidance on fighting impersonation scams calls this point out directly. They state that government agencies, banks, and utilities will all generally have your account information ready to go and can verify it with you, but they shouldn’t need to confirm information they’re expected to already have.
Tip: Make the verification question something only your actual account would reflect. A recent payment amount, a specific service date, or a reference number from a prior interaction are all good options. Avoid asking for confirmation or information that the caller could have sourced from publicly available sites.
Warning Sign: If the caller says they can’t access the information you’re requesting or pivots to asking you to confirm your details instead, end the call right away.
Step 3: End the call and search the number directly
Whether or not the immediate call goes well, your next step should always be the same. End the call and search the number independently before taking any action the caller recommended. This step helps to remove you from the pressure of the live call and gives you a few minutes to think and research before deciding how to proceed.
Even a basic Google search of the full phone number will often surface complaint reports, forum threads, or more. The BBB Scam Tracker is an excellent public resource where consumers file reports on numbers associated with scam activity. A number that has generated multiple recent complaints is a reliable indicator of fraud. Neighbor spoofing, when a scammer uses a number with the same area code as our own, is often detectable with this method.
Tip: Search the exact number in quotation marks to force exact-match results on it. Scam numbers typically appear buried in forums with slight formatting differences, so quoting it will pull more results.
Warning Sign: A number with no web presence, business registration, or search results is a warning sign. Real businesses should have a searchable digital footprint, and a number with no result at all has likely deliberately been kept clean.
Step 4: Use a reverse phone lookup to cross-check the number
A basic web search will tell you what other consumers have reported about a number. A reverse phone lookup will add another layer to the result. This search checks the number against business registrations, carrier records, and contact profiles. This result will let you know whether the number is registered to the company the caller claims to be from.
If the lookup shows the number associated with a real business at a matching address, it’s a green flag. However, this is not conclusive. Caller ID spoofing can still route a call through a legitimate-appearing number. The FCCs STIR/SHAKEN framework is a call authentication protocol that’s been implemented by major carriers and has reduced the ease of basic spoofing. However, full implementation across smaller carriers is still incomplete.
Tip: Use the reverse lookup as a cross-check, not a verdict. A number that comes back clean isn’t necessarily safe as spoofed calls can pass through registered numbers. Simply use it to flag discrepancies rather than to clear calls you’re not sure about.
Warning Sign: A number the caller attributed to a major company that comes back as being related to a different business, residential address, or unrelated organization is a major indicator of spoofing or an impersonation.
Step 5: Call the company back through its verified main line
This step is the most reliable verification method on this list. A direct callback to a company’s published number creates a clean channel that can’t be spoofed or manipulated.
Utility impersonation scams are among the most common and the highest-volume imposter scams tracked by the BBB and Utilities United Against Scams coalition, and finding their real business number is possible with a simple Google search.
When you call back through the verified line, ask specifically whether a representative called you and what the subject was about. Most large organizations log outbound call activity and will be able to confirm whether the call happened.
Tip: Find the verified number before you actually need it. Add all the customer service numbers of your bank, utility company, and employer to your contacts. In a high pressure moment, having the numbers ready to go can remove one more step.
Warning Sign: Never use a callback number that the caller gives you and never use a number that appears in the contact line of the person calling you. Always find the number independently from the company’s official website.
Step 6: Report the number to the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau
If your verification process confirms, or at least strongly suggests, that the call was fake, reporting it is a quick and easy process that can save others. The FTC’s ReportFraud site collects government complaint data that federal and state law enforcement use to identify fraud patterns, prosecute operations, and issue consumer warnings. A number that gets a large amount of complaints will trigger investigative attention that it otherwise may not have received.
Similarly, the BBB Scam Tracker site is a consumer-facing complement. By reporting data to both platforms, you can maximize the reach of your complaint.
Tip: When going to file the report, include as much detail as possible, including the full number, the date and time of the call, the name and company the caller claimed to be from, and the nature of the request.
Warning Sign: If you provided any financial information during a call you think was fake, contact your bank right away before filing a report. The report documents the scam, but your bank can stop any immediate damage.
Build the habit before you need it
These recommended steps take less than five minutes end to end, and the precautions that take the most time are the ones that matter the most. The challenge is to keep your cool during scam calls that are designed to pressure you into taking quick action.
The best defense against imposter scams is to build the verification habits before you’re under any pressure. Run through the steps on a benign unknown call, such as a robocall from an insurance company, so the sequence feels automatic. Most victims of phone fraud acknowledge that something felt off on the call, but they didn’t know how to respond.
Scam volume isn’t going to decrease anytime soon. What consumers have that scammers don’t is the ability to pause. You can always end the call and check before responding. That small pause, when applied consistently, can provide you with actual protection.
This story was produced by Spokeo and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
