The holiday season is a great time to gather with family and friends. This year, why not take the opportunity to talk to family members — especially older ones — about how to avoid phone scams that could tarnish this festive time of year.
Here are 5 practical tips to share with your loved ones to help them avoid scams this holiday season.
- Turn on spam protection services – Many phone carriers offer network-level spam protection. For example, carriers who use Hiya Protect can warn subscribers of potentially dangerous calls by adding labels such as “Potential fraud” or “Suspected spam.” To access network protection, some carriers may require users to “opt-in” to services or to activate an app, so make sure your loved ones turn on any spam protection services available to them from their carrier.
- Download the Hiya app – If your family member’s phone carrier does not offer network-level spam protection, help them download the Hiya mobile app. It’s available for free from the Google Play store and the Apple App Store. The Hiya app identifies potentially unwanted calls and comes with options such as auto-blocking spam calls and reverse phone lookup.
- Add contacts to the phone – When contacts are added to a user's mobile phone, the contact’s name and phone number will appear on the phone screen of an incoming call. Help your loved ones add the names and numbers of their friends and relatives. Then, when a call comes in, they don’t have to wonder if it’s someone they know.
- Don’t answer calls from unknown numbers – After contacts have been added, advise your loved ones not to answer any calls from unknown numbers. If a call comes from someone they know, it will show up on their phone screen and they can confidently answer the call. If they’re not sure whether an unidentified call is legitimate, advise them to let it go to voicemail and show them how they can retrieve their voicemail messages.
- Be aware of common scams – It’s not enough to just tell someone to watch out for phone scams. It’s more helpful to explain the types of scams they’re likely to encounter. To learn what phone scams are currently making the rounds, check out Hiya’s blog post Top 10 Phone Scams of 2023 and our ongoing Scam of the Month series.
Additional resources
Below are other resources that can be helpful when talking to family members about scams this holiday season:
- Better Business Bureau: 10 steps to avoid scams
- Federal Trade Commission: How scammers try to steal your life savings
- Hiya blog: Protect yourself from holiday scams
