Idaho Scam Warning: Hang Up Immediately If You Hear These 4 Words

In the day and age of caller ID, we don’t know too many people who will pick-up calls from an unknown number. Should you make the decision to see who’s on the other end, you should end the call immediately if the person on the other end utters a certain four-word phrase. 

As a radio station, we’ve been on the opposite side of people not picking up a number they don’t recognize. While we want to believe that all of our awesome listeners have our studio line saved in their contacts, we know that many of you don’t. We don’t take it personally, but it’s kind of a bummer when we call you to tell you that you’ve won concert tickets or cash and you don’t pick up. We can’t speak for every radio personality in Idaho, but we will call you back several times in a row trying to get your attention! 

READ MORE: FBI Warns Idahoans to Delete Dangerous New Scam Text Immediately

Then we got a dose of karma for doing that. While we were out shopping last weekend, we got three calls from the same phone number in the span of three minutes. It happened again with a different number a few days later and we seriously thought about picking up the phone. 

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If you do end up answering the phone, security experts say you should hang up if the caller begins with the phrase “Can you hear me?”

What Every Idahoan Needs to Know About the “Can You Hear Me” Scam

The Better Business Bureau explains that they’ve received many reports from people who say they’ve received a phone call from a number they don’t recognize where the caller asked “can you hear me” and then immediately hung up after the person they called said “yes.” They’ve also seen variations of the scam where the caller continues the conversation, posing as a legitimate business like a bank or insurance company. 

The BBB explains the scammers behind the calls have one goal: getting you to respond yes and recording that response. In the future, they could use that recording to impersonate you while authorizing a major purchase. They may also be looking for you to say yes so that they know that your number is active, making you a target for future scams. 

That’s why the BBB says the best thing that Idahoans can do if they receive a call like this is hang up immediately. Don’t say “yes.” Don’t let them lead you into another question where you may respond “yes.” 

What Should I Do If I Fell For The “Can You Hear Me Scam?”

The number that called you will likely be on your recent call list. Report that to the BBB’s Scam Tracker page to help get the word out so that other people don’t fall for the same scam from the same number. That list also gets shared with government and law enforcement agencies that focus on scams and fraud cases. 

More importantly, if you think that you’ve been implicated in the scam, you should keep a close eye on your accounts for charges that you know you didn’t make.