In Jacksonville, Florida a recent spoofing case was reported by a women claiming to have been asked for $250. The spoofer called pretending to be the HHS Office of Inspector General and informed the women she had won $9,000 in government grant money. In order to complete the process she was then asked to give $250 and “confirm” her personal information such as her address and name.

Despite never sending the $250 dollars the women was still tricked into giving her personal information to a spoofer. It may seem harmless but these hackers can use this information to open up credit cards, steal money from bank accounts and even fake identification.

The Federal government will never call you unsolicited – meaning you will never receive a call from them unless you initiated the contact.

The case above is one of thousands reported by citizens and it will only get worse as spoofers continue to refine their techniques. It is important to remain skeptical of people offering you things over the phone – especially if asking for personal information unsolicited. To learn how to protect your privacy, what to do in order to be more cyber secure and how to protect yourself from telephone and email scams – read more from the Department of Health and Services.

https://www.hhs.gov/blog/2017/04/14/spoofing-not-joke-thousands-hit-phone-scam.html