Phone Spoofing Scam Targets Fairfax County Residents

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — Fairfax County government is warning residents of a scam involving spoofing of a county help line phone number.

Residents have reported receiving calls from 703-324-1000, the MyFairfax online portal help line. The scammer claims the residents' Fairfax County data has been compromised and that they need to call another number to set up fraud protection.

According to the county government, the help line number is being spoofed. Phone spoofing involves falsifying the information sent to your caller ID so the call appears to come from a local number. Scammers may impersonate a government agency in an attempt to steal personal information or money.

Residents who receive the scam call are urged to avoid calling any secondary number and avoid giving personal or county information. For those expecting a call from MyFairfax, they can hang up and call MyFairfax directly.

The FCC takes reports from victims of spoofing scams. Below are some tips from the FCC to avoid these spoofing scams.

• Do not answer calls from unknown numbers, or hang up immediately.
• If you answer the phone and the caller or recording asks you to hit a button to stop getting the calls, just hang up. Scammers often use this trick to identify potential targets.
• Do not respond to any questions, particularly those answered with "yes" or "no."
• Do not give out personal information such as account numbers, Social Security numbers, mother's maiden names, passwords or other identifying information during unexpected or suspicious calls.
• If you get a call from someone claiming to represent a company or a government agency, hang up and call the phone number on your account statement, in the phone book, or on the company's or government agency's website to verify. You will usually get a written statement in the mail before you get a phone call from a legitimate source, especially if the caller is asking for a payment.
• Use caution if you are being pressured for information immediately.
• If you have a voice mail account with your phone service, set a password for it. Some voicemail services are preset to allow access if you call in from your own phone number. A hacker could spoof your home phone number and gain access to your voice mail if you do not set a password.
• Talk to your phone company about call blocking tools and check into apps that you can download to your mobile device. The FCC allows phone companies to block robocalls by default based on reasonable analytics. More information about robocall blocking is available at fcc.gov/robocalls.