What are Luzerne County Area Codes?
Area codes are the first three numbers that begin every North American telephone number under the Numbering Plan Area (NPA). The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) provides that every NPA is covered by a minimum of one area code. An area code allows a person to identify where the caller placed a call from. An area code lookup can be conducted using a reverse phone lookup service. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) allocates and maintains area codes in the state.
Area Code 570
Area code 570 is the main telephone area code covering the northeast quadrant of Pennsylvania. It was created as a split from area code 717 on December 5, 1998. It serves East Stroudsburg, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Williamsport, Stroudsburg, Tunkhannock, Pittston, Pocono Pines, Montrose, Carbondale, Hazleton, Clarks Summit PA, Towanda, Bloomsburg, Sayre, Berwick, Milford, Honesdale, Nanticoke, Tamaqua, Shavertown, Dallas, Mahanoy City, Sunbury, and Jim Thorpe. Area code 570 also covers as far south as Pottsville and as far west as Lock Haven.
Area Code 272
Area code 272 was created on July 15, 2010, as an overlay code of area code 570. The PUC officially implemented area code 272 as an overlay code on March 28, 2013. Area code 272 serves the same territory as area code 570.
What Are the Best Cell Phone Plans in Luzerne County?
In Luzerne County, Verizon is the wireless network provider with the widest coverage. It has 100% coverage compared to the other network providers in the County. T-Mobile ranks next to Verizon in terms of coverage with 80%. With 66%, AT&T has the least coverage of the three active network providers in the county. While wireless network providers strive to provide quality network, the network quality in particular areas of the county may be low if such areas are densely populated. Harsh weather conditions may also negatively affect network quality.
The National Center of Health Statistics survey for 2018, shows that an estimate of 43.4% of the Pennsylvania adults aged 18 and above used only wireless telephones. On the other hand, the estimate of the adults in Pennsylvania that used only landlines was 4.3%. In comparison to the minors under age 18 in Pennsylvania, 52.5% used only wireless telephone services, while 2.3% of the minors only used landlines. This survey indicates a notable difference in the preference of both the adults and minors in Pennsylvania for wireless telephone services as against landline telephone services.
Over the past few years, the use of VoIP has significantly increased in Luzerne County. Most residents and businesses choose to adopt VoIP due to its rich features and cost-saving factors. Compared to traditional telephony services, VoIP offers better services, especially if the internet connection is strong. VoIP, Voice Over Internet Protocol transmits voice and multimedia data between users with the use of active internet connections. Some features VoIP calls provide include advanced call management, call analytics, anonymous call rejection, call routing, etc.
What Are Luzerne County Phone Scams?
In Luzerne County, phone scams involve the perpetration of criminal activities using telephony services to defraud county residents. Phone scammers target county residents at all levels. Sometimes, the aim of the scam is not just to steal their victims’ money but also to steal their personal information, which will be used for identity theft. In recent times, phone scammers have begun to exploit the advancement in telephony service technology to commit atrocities over the phone. VoIP is one of the tools these scammers have taken advantage of. With VoIP, they spoof the Caller IDs of legitimate agencies and impersonate them to get residents to disclose their personal information or pay money for false causes. The FCC provides information on how to identify Caller ID spoofing and enable call blocking on their cell phones to fight phone scams.
Free reverse phone number lookup services can be used to reveal the identities of scammers and block them. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) provides information on common phone scams and how to identify them.
Major scams perpetrated in Luzerne County include:
What are Jury Duty/Warrant Scams
Jury duty scams are perpetrated by fraudsters who pose as representatives of the Luzerne County Sheriff’s Department or County Judiciary. These fraudsters contact residents, claiming that they missed jury duty and as such, warrants have been issued for their arrest. The fraudsters issue threats like arrest and jail term to scare residents and make them pay certain amounts of money in the name of a “fine”. In most cases, the fraudsters tell victims to offset the fines by visiting convenience stores or pharmacies to purchase prepaid debit cards or iTunes gift cards. After they purchase the cards, they will be required to provide the card numbers to the scammers over the phone to pay the fines. Tracking these payment methods is usually difficult and processing a refund may be impossible. Never give out personal information or send money in response to such calls.
Note that scammers mostly hide their phone numbers from their targets and spoof the Sheriff’s Department’s Caller ID to make it look like the calls originated from the county courthouse. Hence, note that not all calls that appear to be from the Sheriff’s Department are actually from the Sheriff’s Department.
The Luzerne County Sheriff’s Department and the County District Attorney warn of these scams and advise county residents that receive these calls to hang up immediately and report to the Luzerne County District Attorney at 570-825-1674. These scams can also be reported at the closest local law enforcement agency.
What are IRS Scams?
IRS scams are prevalent in most parts of the United States during tax seasons. They involve scammers posing as IRS officers and contacting residents with claims that they owe money to the IRS. These scammers threaten their targets with deportation or arrests if they do not send them money in payment of taxes or fees they owe. It is important to note that these calls are not placed by the IRS. IRS representatives never contact taxpayers out of the blue without first prompting the calls with emails. Also, persons that receive such calls should hang up and not make any payments or disclose personal and financial information.
Phone number lookup can be conducted via a free reverse phone lookup website or mobile app to get the actual identity of the scammer that contacted you. Report IRS scams online to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) or call TIGTA at 1-800-366-4484 to report.
What are Charity Scams
After disasters that involve property losses and other forms of losses occur in the county, it is typical of charity organizations to begin soliciting help for affected persons. While there are legitimate charity organizations that solicit help, scammers sometimes impersonate these legitimate organizations or their affiliates to defraud county residents. They call their residents, soliciting donations, which will be later embezzled. These scammers sometimes spoof the Caller IDs of legitimate organizations or seek donations in the name of nonexistent organizations and provide fake evidence to back up their appeal for donations. Free reverse phone lookup services that support phone number searches can be used whenever fraud is suspected.
What are Family Emergency Scams?
These scams involve residents being contacted with claims that their family members are in danger and certain amounts of money need to be paid to get them out of the so-called “danger.” The scammers may sometimes claim that the money requested will be used as fine to secure their relatives’ safety. Be informed that scammers sometimes copy the phone numbers of various Luzerne County Magisterial District Judges’ Offices. They do this to make the calls appear legitimate but in the real sense, most of these calls are actually from foreign countries, making it more tedious to investigate the scams.
Law enforcement and Luzerne County Court Administration advise the county residents to be vigilant and very cautious when handling suspicious calls. Where the caller calls with a regular phone number, a reverse phone lookup service can be used to conduct a phone number search to determine where the call originated from.
What are Robocalls and Spam Calls?
Robocalls are pre-recorded calls sent through autodialers to a wide range of persons. Sometimes robocalls contain prompts for recipients to be transferred to live-representatives to get more information on the subject matter of the call. However, authorized robocalls are strictly informational in nature. The FTC also authorizes robocalls for debt collection, robocalls from legitimate charities, robocalls during political campaigns, and robocalls from legitimate health institutions.
Unfortunately, phone scams have managed to infiltrate the robocall system and now use it for fraudulent purposes such as to steal unsuspecting residents’ money or personal and financial information. Scammers also use robocalls to advertise bogus offers and fake products. Spam calls refer to random calls meant for advertising or other purposes that are irrelevant to the recipients. These calls are usually placed without their prior consent.
Unlawful robocalls and spam calls can be avoided by following these precautions:
- Use reverse phone number lookup services to identify robocalls and block them.
- Terminate the call the moment you discern that you have picked a robocall. Also never follow any instructions given during the calls. Robocalls placed by scammers often contain such prompts and if the targets follow the prompt, they may be unknowingly subscribing for more unsolicited calls.
- Include your all personal phone numbers to the National Do Not Call Registry to put a restriction on robocalls and other unwanted calls.
- File a complaint on unsolicited robocalls online via the FTC’s online complaint assistant or call 1-888-382-1222.
How to Spot and Report Luzerne County Phone Scams?
Scammers have advanced from merely perpetrating fraud in person. They have begun to use telephony services to perpetrate scams, by contacting persons and stealing their money and personal information. For this reason, Luzerne County residents are encouraged to stay alert and learn about the red flags of phone scams and measures to take to avoid them. They include:
- Calls from persons that identify themselves as representatives of government agencies, demanding payment - Government agencies and legitimate businesses never call out of the blue to demand payment. If you receive such a call, immediately hang up and report the call to the law enforcement agency closest to you.
- Incessant calls from unfamiliar phone numbers - Ignore such calls. You can also use a reverse phone lookup service to perform a phone number search to find out who called you. After identifying the caller, you can block the caller’s phone number with a reverse phone lookup service or contact your phone network service provider to get more call blocking options.
- Calls requesting your personal or financial information - Terminate the call immediately this happens and do not disclose your personal or financial information to anyone. Identify the caller by conducting a suspicious phone number lookup.
- The caller wants to maintain an anonymous status or wants to keep certain details of the calls secret - This is suspicious, legitimate callers always disclose their true identities. Use a phone number lookup service to check out the callers’ background information.
- Callers telling persons that “won” prizes to pay certain processing fees - This is a clear indication of a scam. Prizes won do not require you to make any form of payment or give out your financial details.
Luzerne County residents can report phone scams to these government agencies:
Luzerne County Sheriff’s Department - Contact the Sheriff’s Office at 570-825-1651 to report scams.
Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office - Contact the District Attorney’s Office at 570-825-1674 to report scams.
Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Protection - Report scams by calling 1-800-441-2555 or emailing scams@attorneygeneral.gov. You can also Submit a Complaint online. Individuals can sign up for free on the Attorney General’s Text Alert System to be updated on new scams.
Federal Communications Commission - Fill the online complaint form to report scams.
Federal Trade Commission - Report scams to the FTC via the online consumer complaint assistant. Individuals can also include their phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry to restrict unsolicited calls.