What are Dauphin County Area Codes?
There are four area codes serving Dauphin County. These are area codes 717, 223, 570, and 272. Area codes are three-digit numeric designations for NPAs (numbering plan areas). NPAs were created in the United States following the implementation of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) in 1947. Area codes streamlined call routing across North American phone networks as they adopted a unified system (the NANP). An area code is the first three digits in a 10-digit US phone number.
Area Code 717
Area code 717 is one of the original 86 area codes created at the institution of the NANP in 1947. It was the biggest of the four area codes assigned to Pennsylvania and covered most of the eastern half of the state. It has since been shrunk and split to create new area codes. Some of the communities in Dauphin County served by area code 717 are Harrisburg, Halifax, Lykens, and Gratz.
Area Code 223
Created in October 2016, area code 223 became available to use on September 25, 2017. It was created as an overlay plan for the 717 NPA. As an overlay code, 223 serves the same communities as area code 717.
Area Code 570
Area code 570 was split from area code 717 on December 5, 1998. It covers cities and towns in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania. Communities in Dauphin County served by area code 570 include Pillow.
Area Code 272
Area code 272 is an overlay code for the 570 NPA. On March 28, 2013, it officially entered service and serves the same communities covered by area code 570.
What are the Best Cell Phone Plans in Dauphin County?
Most residents of Dauphin County and the rest of Pennsylvania rely on a combination of landline and wireless phone services. A 2018 wireless substitution survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics showed that 43.4% of the adult population of Pennsylvania relied solely on wireless phone services. In contrast, just 4.3% of this demographic only used landline phones for telecommunications. More than half of minors in the state have made the switch to wireless phone services. The survey found 52.5% of respondents under the age of 18 in this category while only 2.3% of them still relied solely on landline phones.
AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint all provide phone services in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. While the first three carriers offer more than 90% coverage of the state, Sprint’s network covers just over half of the state. AT&T provides phone services in 95.4% of Pennsylvania’s zip codes while Verizon’s network reaches residents in 93.1% of the state. T-Mobile offers a matching 93% coverage but Sprint’s network only covers 66% of the zip codes in Pennsylvania.
Besides these big carriers, MVNOs also provide phone services in Dauphin County. MVNOs or Mobile Virtual Network Operators are smaller, regional carriers that offer phone services tailored to the specific needs of the residents of the areas they serve. They rely on the phone networks of the big carriers and buy network services from them in bulk. These are repackaged into more affordable bundles for local residents.
Dauphin County residents can also sign up for VoIP phone services. VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol is a communication technology that carriers voice signals over the internet as data packets. VoIP phone services rely on broadband internet but offer improved flexibility and lower costs especially for long-distance calls. VoIP phone services are also better suited to telecommuting and support a wide range of devices including landline and mobile phones as well as computers and tablets.
What are Dauphin County Phone Scams?
Dauphin County phone scams are frauds committed against residents of the county and conducted using phone services. Scammers contact the targets by phone calls and text messages with the aim of defrauding them or stealing confidential information. The most common phone tools and services used by scammers are robocalls, spam calls, caller ID spoofing, and voice phishing. These make it easier for scammers to reach a lot more people and lowers the cost of communicating with them long enough to successfully run their cons. However, not all phone tools and services make life easier for scammers. Some like call blocking and reverse phone lookup services help their targets avoid phone scams.
The most common phone scams reported in Dauphin County and the rest of Pennsylvania include fake check scams, IRS scams, lottery scams, family emergency scams, and tech support scams.
What are Dauphin County Fake Check Scams?
These scams rely on the delay involved when clearing checks. Scammers using fake check cons contact their victims and propose attractive offers. They may offer them employment, ask them to act as mystery shoppers, or sell them on get-rich-quick schemes. While there are many variations of the fake check scam, they all involve scammers sending checks to their victims to pay for transactions or fund transfers. For example, a scammer sends a check in an amount in excess of what the victim is due to receive for a task or investment returns. The scammer then asks the victim to send back the change when depositing the check. The victim then pays the scammer the excess amount but later discovers that their check was fake.
Before sending money back to a stranger mailing you a check, make sure to confirm their identity and claims. Use a phone number lookup search to identify the person registered to the number used to contact you. If you find any discrepancy, report the scam immediately.
What are Dauphin County IRS Scams?
IRS scams are excellent examples of frauds involving impersonating government officials. These scams are most common during the tax season. A scammer calls claiming to be an IRS agent and demands that you immediately repay owed taxes. The scammer is usually rude and uses threats to obtain compliance. IRS scammers threaten their victims with jail, deportation, and revocation of business license. They ask victims to send them money via wire transfer, prepaid debit cards, and gift cards.
Another variation of the IRS scam involves a stranger calling to tell the target that they qualify for tax refund. In their excitement, the target drops their guard and eagerly sends all requested pieces of information. These include confidential details such as Social Security Number, checking account number, and credit card security code. Scammers employing this tactic steal information to use for identity theft and make huge purchases billed to their victims’ credit cards.
When contacted by someone claiming to be from the IRS, make sure to first run their phone numbers through a reverse phone lookup service. Even if your phone’s caller ID identifies the caller as IRS, do not send money or provide personal and confidential information over the phone. Call the nearest IRS office from the list of phone numbers on the agency’s official website. The IRS never initiates communication with taxpayers by phone. Rather, they do so by mail.
What are Dauphin County Lottery Scams?
In a lottery scam, a fraudster calls an unsuspecting resident to congratulate them on winning a lottery or sweepstakes. This is usually a lottery in another state or country as this is harder to confirm. In most cases, victims have never heard of the lotteries they supposedly won nor entered in them. Lottery scammers ask their victims to pay certain amounts before receiving their winnings. They claim these fees cover taxes and other processing charges.
Dauphin County residents should know that legitimate lotteries and sweepstakes do not ask winners to pay any amount before receiving their winnings. Taxes and other fees are taken from lottery prizes. If you receive a call from someone claiming you won a lottery, confirm their identity by running a reverse cell phone lookup to see if their number is registered to the organization they claim to represent. Confirm the lottery directly by searching for it online and calling its organizers directly.
What are Dauphin County Family Emergency Scams?
While these can target anyone, they are most commonly directly at elderly residents. When targeting the elderly, these are also referred to as grandparent scams. In a family emergency scam, a fraudster claims and impersonates a loved one to ask for immediate financial help. They claim they are in a bind and ask you to send money by wire transfer, gift card, or prepaid debit card. Claimed emergencies including requiring help to get out of jail, leave a foreign country, and pay hospital bills. Scammers using these tactics often ask their victims not to tell anyone about their predicaments or the financial help. They do this to avoid targets catching them in their lies.
Before sending money to a loved one calling out of the blue in an emergency, make sure to confirm their sob stories with other family members. Call the loved one in question directly with their number saved on your phone to confirm that they are truly the ones calling. If contacted with an unknown number, use a reverse phone search to answer the question: who is this number registered to?
What are Dauphin County Tech Support Scams?
Scammers impersonating tech support often claim to represent big tech support companies, like Microsoft and Apple, as these firms employ a lot of people. They call to inform you that your computer has been infected by a virus or is running too slowly and needs a tune-up. These fraudsters may ask for remote access to your computer or ask you to download a file from a sketchy website.
In its most benign form, a tech support scam ends with the victim paying for bogus repairs and fixes to their computer. Oftentimes, scammers infect their victims’ computers with malware. These can be viruses so they can justify a subscription to, and monthly payment for, an ineffective antivirus program. Scammers can also install adware, cryptocurrency-mining malware, or ransomware on victims’ computers in hopes of bigger payouts.
Hang up on a stranger making an unsolicited call to provide tech support. Tech companies do not call their customers to offer unsolicited customer or tech support. Use a reverse phone lookup search to confirm that the number calling you is not registered to the tech company claimed by the caller.
What are Robocalls and Spam Calls?
Robocalls are automated phone calls that deliver pre-recorded messages to large numbers of phone users. These calls are placed by auto-dialers, machines or software that dial long lists of phone numbers on their own. Robocalls were first introduced to help telemarketers and political campaigns send out their messages to large audiences. Organizations that deliver public service announcements also use robocalls for the same purpose. However, the scale and reach of robocalls as well as the ease of using them make them attractive to scammers too. With these calls, they can find more targets for their cons with little effort.
Spam calls are also unwanted bulk calls. They usually feature messages recorded by actual persons and they are also commonly used for phone scams. With Dauphin County residents receiving thousands of these unwanted calls every day, it is important to learn how to stop these calls or at least reduce the number received. Here are a few tips for dealing with robocalls and spam calls:
- Do not trust your phone’s caller ID function to correctly identify callers. Scammers employing caller ID spoofing can change their ID when using robocalls and spam calls
- Hang up a call as soon as you realize it is a robocall
- Refrain from following instructions given during a robocall or spam call to remove your number from their call lists. Following such prompts will only confirm to scammers and spammers that your number is active
- Use reverse phone lookup services to investigate calls from strangers and unknown numbers. If you do not recognize the individuals linked to these numbers, block their calls
- Use call-blocking services to block calls from blacklisted numbers or unknown numbers. These services are built into smartphones, provided by carriers, and offered by third-party call-blocking apps
- Register your phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry. Pennsylvania also has a Do Not Call List that residents can join. Add your phone number to these registries signals to legitimate telemarketers that you do not wish to be contacted. Subsequent robocalls and spam calls are most likely from scammers
How to Spot and Report Dauphin County Phone Scams
Learning to spot phone scams requires keeping tabs on prevalent scams in the country. Do this by following advisories published by the Bureau of Consumer Protection unit in the Office of the Attorney General of the state. Dauphin County residents should always be wary when taking calls from strangers and unknown numbers. They can use phone lookup searches to investigate such numbers and callers.
While phone scams are getting increasingly sophisticated, they all rely on the same old tricks and have the same aims: to steal money or confidential information from unsuspecting phone users. To avoid falling victim to phone scams, Dauphin County residents should look out for these red flags:
- Use of threat to obtain compliance - while impersonating authority figures, scammers try to scare their targets into complying with their demands by threatening to arrest, prosecute, or deport them. When targeting business owners, scammers threaten them with unscheduled inspections and revocation of business licenses
- Demanding payment via unofficial channels - scammers want their victims to send money by untraceable and irreversible means. These include prepaid debit cards, gift cards, cryptocurrency, and wire transfers. Legitimate organizations do not ask for payment via these channels
- Asking for more information than needed - anyone asking for more information than needed to process your request is most likely a scammer. Oftentimes, scammers impersonating government officials, IRS agents, and employees of financial houses demand details that those institutions already have on file
- Employing aggressive sales tactics - scammers get pushy when trying to sell dubious investment, product, and travel offers. They claim their attractive offers are only available for a limited time and want their targets to make immediate commitments
- Failure to properly identify themselves - scammers impersonating others often cannot provide full identification details. They remain vague when pressed about their full identities
Authorities encourage Dauphin County residents to report phone scams whether they are successful or foiled. Reporting helps law enforcement can find and prosecute scammers and help other residents learn about new scam tactics. Residents of Dauphin County can report phone scams to the following agencies:
- Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Protection - this agency upholds the state’s consumer protection laws. Report scams perpetrated by deceptive companies and telemarketers to the BCP by calling 1-800-441-2555 or submitting a complaint form
- The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) - this is the federal agency responsible for consumer protection. It collects reports of frauds involving deceptive business practices. These include phone scams perpetrated by fake charities, dubious investment groups, and bad travel agencies. Submit a fraud complaint to the FTC online
- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) - this agency regulates all forms of communication in the United States. Its roles include policing the use and misuse of phone services and technologies. Scams involving illegal robocalls, spam calls, caller ID spoofing, and phishing can be reported to the FCC’s Consumer Complaint Center
- Dauphin County residents can also report phone scams to local law enforcement. These include the Sheriff’s Department and other police departments in the county