Subject:
- Scam/Robo Calls to ESU Business Lines
Applies To:
Article:
Scam and Robo-calls have been increasing over the past months, to both personal phones and ESU phones. On a personal phone, there are devices or apps which allow number blocking or whitelisting only expected numbers. However, blocking numbers is not as straightforward for businesses like ESU.
Scammers and Robo-callers don’t use their own phone numbers for their caller-ID, so ESU does not have a way to identify which numbers to block. What they DO use for their caller-ID are actual, legitimate phone numbers for real people and businesses that are NOT scammers. This is called “Spoofing.” Within the past few years there has been an increase in spammers using phone numbers for their caller-ID that appear to be from our own area code, in the expectation that if the number looks familiar, more people will answer. This is called “Neighbor Spoofing.” If ESU were to block the caller-ID numbers the scammers choose to use, we could unintentionally block legitimate students, parents, and the companies we do business with. In addition, if we block those numbers, it might stop the scammers for a short time, but then they would simply switch to a different caller-ID number.
In IT, we understand that the volume of scam calls we get is frustrating. We have reached out to our phone service provider to see if there is anything they can do, but they have the same issues in identifying which calls are scammers and which are legitimate. Unfortunately, there is little else we can do at this time.
However, if at any time you receive a call where the caller threatens harm, or tries to get personal information about an ESU employee or student, please contact Police and Safety.