What are Lehigh County Area Codes?
As part of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), an area code is a 3-digit number at the beginning of all phone numbers in North America. It identifies the origin or destination of a phone call by specifying the Numbering Plan Area (NPA). The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) is responsible for managing area codes in Lehigh county. Residents may conduct area code lookups to verify suspicious phone numbers.
Currently, two area codes cover the nine cities in Lehigh County. The area codes are as follows:
Area Code 610
Area code 610 was officially set into service on August 1, 1994. It was derived from area code 215. Later in 1999, area code 610 was overlaid with area code 484. The cities covered by this area code include Allentown, Bethlehem, and Reading.
Area Code 484
Area code 484 is an overlay of area code 610. It was introduced on June 5th, 1999. It serves the southeastern part of the State of Pennsylvania. Cities and communities covered by this area code include Allentown, Chester, Easton, Bethlehem, etc.
What Are the Best Cell Phone Plans in Lehigh County?
According to a National Center of Health Statistics survey in 2018, about 43.4% of adults in the State of Pennsylvania used wireless-only telephones. On the other hand, only about 4.3% of Pennsylvania adults used landline only. In the category of children under the age of 18, 52.5% used wireless only as opposed to about 2.3% that exclusively used landlines. With these figures, it suffices to say that cell phones are the preferred telephony service over landlines in Lehigh county.
The major phone carriers in Lehigh County and Pennsylvania at large are AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon. Out of these major phone carriers, T-mobile has the highest coverage, with about 97.64% coverage. AT&T is the second with 97.59% coverage, followed by Verizon (97.53%) and then Sprint (92.27%). Note that the quality of the phone services may differ in different places and may be significantly lesser in highly populated areas and rural areas.
However, there are other telephony services that are gaining more ground in the State of Pennsylvania. An example of such services is the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). VoIP is a telephony service that enables users to make calls with broadband internet connections instead of regular phone lines. Several companies offer VoIP services in Lehigh County. As a result, the competition in products and prices among VoIP service providers tend to increase progressively.
What Are Lehigh County Phone Scams?
Phone scams in Lehigh County are fraudulent operations targeted at residents of the county through phone calls. Such fraudulent calls are usually aimed at illegally obtaining money, financial information, or identity details from residents. Some government security and law enforcement agencies assist Lehigh County residents in preventing and fighting against phone scams. Such agencies may include:
- Lehigh County Sheriff's Office
- Pennsylvania State Police
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- Internet Crime Complaint Center
- Federal Trade Commission
- Better Business Bureau
Lehigh County residents who are targets or have been victimized by phone scammers may file their reports/complaints with the above-mentioned agencies. Reverse phone lookup services are adept at identifying fraudsters behind the phone numbers used for these phone scams. Some common phone scams in Lehigh County include:
What are IRS Impersonation Scams?
Phone scammers identify themselves as agents of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This type of phone scam becomes more rampant in the tax filing season when many people are more conscious of tax payments. The scammers issue threats such as deportation, police arrests, license revocation, and other such things to taxpayers if they do not yield to their demands. With such threats, unsuspecting victims may panic into sending money to the scammers or end up exposing confidential financial details that may easily be used for fraudulent activities. Also, the scammers usually demand immediate payments or leave urgent callback requests. To make the scam calls appear genuine, scammers may spoof the Caller ID so that it appears like a phone number from the IRS. According to the IRS, more than 3,000 persons have fallen victims to this scam between 2013 and 2015. These victims have collectively lost about $14 million to impersonation scams.
The IRS advises residents to watch out for these impersonation phone scams. It is worthy of note that the IRS does not solicit payments via phone conversations and does not request confidential financial information from taxpayers over the phone. Also, the IRS does not call taxpayers to demand immediate payments. It also never demands a specific method of payment, such as a prepaid debit card. As such, it is best practice to avoid calls making these requests and contact the official IRS lines for proper inquiries. Reverse phone lookup services may also help residents to identify phone numbers that are not registered as IRS. Alternatively, residents may leverage free phone lookup services to know the true identity of who called them.
What are Jury Duty Scams
In this type of scam, fraudsters impersonate court officials and try to extort money or sensitive information from unsuspecting residents. Typically, these scammers call their targets and claim that the targets have missed jury duty schedules. This is usually intended to instill fear in the call recipients and make them ready to disclose sensitive information or pay a certain amount of money as a fine. The fraudsters mostly demand immediate payment over the phone or via wire service.
In a scam alert statement released by the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas (LCCPA), the court warns that it does not demand sensitive information from anyone via telephone calls or email. The LCCPA also specified that the court mostly contacts jurors through mails. In cases of genuine contact by real court agents via phone call, the court never demands sensitive information such as credit card details, Social Security numbers, etc. Therefore, the court recommends that residents avoid such untrusted calls. If anyone picks a call and suspects fraudulent activity, it is recommended to end the call immediately and report to the nearest local law enforcement agency. Residents may use reverse phone look up services to conduct suspicious phone number lookups in order to identify phone scammers disguising as court officials.
What are Charity Donation Scams
Scammers disguise their identities as officials of reputable and legitimate charity organizations or their affiliates to call their targets and solicit donations. They may manipulate the Caller ID information through phone spoofing to imitate the identity of the charity organizations. Sometimes, scammers provide fake evidence to convince their targets in their supposed appeal for funds. By this means, they can defraud unsuspecting, well-meaning residents of huge amounts of money. Note that one thing that is common with these scammers is that they mostly request payment over the telephone. As such, residents are advised to desist from making transactions over the phone and confirm who called them before they respond. Phone number search services may help residents find out the true identities of their callers anytime they suspect fraud.
What are Investment Scams?
Phone scammers lure unsuspecting persons into fraudulent investment deals by offering very high returns on investment. However, these investment offers eventually turn out to be non-existent, more complicated, or of much lower value than the agreement. Scammers offer these investments, claiming little or no risk level and with less than normal protocols to entice their targets. Scammers also pretend to be legitimate representatives from reputable investment organizations in order to convince their targets to take the calls. It is recommended that residents apply caution to avoid falling victim to these scams. It is recommended that residents apply cautionary measures to avoid getting victimized by such phone scammers. To reduce the risk of getting scammed, suspecting targets may ascertain the identity of phone callers via reverse phone number lookup services.
What are Robocalls and Spam Calls?
Robocalls refer to automated phone calls that deliver messages that have been pre-recorded by the callers. Robocall is a tool commonly used by telemarketers, non-profit organizations, and political campaigns to reach out to multiple persons simultaneously. The configuration of robocalls is such that they respond to and prompt users to make choices and inputs according to the user's prior input. As such, robocalls can be used to obtain information and responses from their targets. This makes them instrumental tools for phone scammers. These scammers disguise themselves as legitimate organizations to obtain confidential information from residents via robocalls. With those details, the scammers then perpetrate financial or identity theft. Robocalls may be identified using reverse phone lookup services.
To avoid being scammed via robocalls, there are some precautionary and control measures one can take. The options include:
- Utilize free online phone number lookup services to identify robocalls. You may block those numbers you identify to avoid future calls from them.
- Immediately you suspect a fraudulent robocall, end the call. It may be risky to follow the prompts as that may expose you to information theft.
- Ensure that your number is registered with the National Do Not Call Registry. The registry exempts registered phone numbers from receiving robocalls and other telemarketing and business sales calls. This may not totally stop your phone number from receiving robocalls, but it helps to minimize them and also helps recipients to identify robocalls.
Interested persons may obtain information about blocking unwanted calls on the FTC website.
How to Spot and Report Lehigh County Phone Scams?
To minimize the occurrences of phone scams in Lehigh County, residents are advised to stay informed on current information about these scams. This is because scammers seem to maximize new technologies in perpetrating frauds on unsuspecting individuals. Another important factor that helps reduce phone scams is taking appropriate preventive and control measures. It is recommended to avoid responding to suspected phone calls and to report such calls to the appropriate security quarters. Signs that may indicate that a phone call is likely fraudulent include:
- The caller insists on some particular payment options such as bitcoin, wire transfers, and gift cards. Most of these payment options enable them to carry out transactions without leaving tangible information to trace the funds. As such, transactions made through these means may be very difficult to retrieve even when they are confirmed fraudulent.
- The caller applies aggression and threats in their attempt to obtain sensitive information from the target. Such threats may include arrests, revocation of licenses, fines, suspension, etc.
- "Once in a lifetime" offers for deals, investments, and business opportunities are most likely scam offers. Such offers are intended to entice the recipient to make poorly calculated and spontaneous decisions. Through this means, scammers lure their targets to make payments before they realize what exactly is going on.
- Most legitimate organizations do not request customer-sensitive information over the phone, except the process was initiated and approved by the customer. Hence, when requests for sensitive information come via unsolicited calls, the chances are high that such calls are fraudulent.
Certain organizations make active efforts to curb the activities of phone scammers in Lehigh County. These organizations assist and provide information to residents. They include:
Office of the Sheriff of Lehigh County - Lehigh County Sheriff helps keep residents informed about phone scams in the county. Information about how to prevent phone scams and the legal actions to take in case of these scams may be obtained via this source. Victims or people who suspect phone scams may report to the Lehigh County Sheriff's office. Alternatively, they may carry out a phone number search to confirm the identity of suspected phone numbers.
Better Business Bureau - The Better Business Bureau provides information about businesses that are legitimate and registered in Lehigh County. Scam victims can also file their reports on the Bureau website. The website provides information about scams and how to report them in the county.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - The CFPB provides consumers with current information and resources to aid proper financial management and security. Individuals can lay complaints to the CFPB about suspected fraudulent financial activities via phone calls.
Federal Trade Commission - The FTC is responsible for protecting consumers against scam activities. In a bid to stop unwanted calls to individuals, the FTC established the National Do Not Call Registry. Phone numbers registered in the registry are blocked from unsolicited calls; hence, reducing the possibility of scam robocalls.