Your BBB® wants to warn everyone that the “Can you hear me scam?” is now spreading from Florida to Pennsylvania and Virginia and possibly the rest of the country.

Here’s how the scammers operate: you will get a call from an unknown number (a familiar area code). When you answer it, a person or a recording will introduce themselves and their business, to gain your trust. Immediately after that, they will ask “Can you hear me?”. The natural response is to say “Yes”, “Of course”, etc. And here’s a quick reminder: automated responses or robot recordings are illegal, according to the FTC.

Authorities advise everyone to hang up immediately without answering that question! Police say scammers record your response and sometimes use it to make it seem like you agreed to make payments for bogus services, as shown in this BBB article.

To find out what they might do with the recording and to get tips to avoid this scam, click here.

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