Mobile County Reverse Phone Lookup

What are Mobile County Area Codes?

Area codes are 3-digit numbers that help identify a particular service area in the country. Area codes help automate telephone calls to anywhere across the country without the use of human operators to make the connections. You can find the area code for a community or region in the United States by using area code lookup tools online. Currently, only one area code covers Mobile County.

Area Code 251

Area code 251 serves a large portion of southern Alabama. It covers cities such as Mobile, Atmore, Bay Minette, Monroeville, Saraland, Tillmans, Prichard, and Daphne. Created from area code 334, area code 251 was first put into service in 2001.

What Are the Best Cell Phone Plans in Mobile County?

According to the 2018 National Center of Health Statistics, about 57.8% of adults in Alabama used wireless telephony service as their exclusive telephony service. By contrast, approximately 5.8% of them used landline telephony service only. Among persons under the age of 18, the gap is wider, with 71.6% of individuals in this category adopting wireless telephony service only, while 2.0% used wired telephone services only.

America's four major cellular carriers all have a strong presence in Mobile County. Verizon has the widest service coverage in the county with 98%. T-Mobile has 84% coverage, AT&T has 72%, while Sprint has a 62% service coverage score. There are also several other small cellular carriers, known as Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) offering wireless telephony services to residents of Mobile County.

Other than cellular phone service providers, several companies also offer VoIP services which increase wireless telephony service penetration in Mobile County. VoIP is a telephony service that uses an existing high-speed Internet connection to send and receive calls while offering users a variety of features specific to their needs. Compared to wired telephony services, VoIP offers clearer voice quality, supports multitasking, and can be scaled easily for large users in enterprise scenarios. Since VoIP deals with the packetization of voice signals, VoIP offers services that can be easily integrated efficiently with voice and video, instant messaging, cloud-based technologies, and other collaborative tools and products which can enhance productivity for individuals and businesses.

What are Mobile County Phone Scams?

Mobile County phone scams are illicit activities perpetrated over phone calls that target residents of Mobile County to steal money or fraudulently obtain personal information. These scams may come from real persons, robocalls, or text messages. Scammers often make unfounded promises, such as opportunities to buy products, invest money, get free grants, lotteries, and obtain free vouchers or product trials. The Alabama Attorney General's Office provides regular consumer alerts and awareness of current and popular phone scams carried out in the state.

What are Impersonation Scams?

In an impersonation scam, a scammer poses as a staff of a reputable entity in order to gain the trust of the victim. An impersonation scammer may pose as a law enforcement officer who uses various tricks to obtain personal or financial information from the target. An impersonation scammer may go as far as threatening the target with arrest or jail time if the requested information is not provided. You can use a reverse phone lookup service to identify the identity if a call actually originates from where the caller claims. However, some impersonation scammers now use spoofing technology to falsify the identity of a caller. A classic example of an impersonation scam is an IRS scam where the caller poses as an employee of the Internal Revenue Service and asks the target to pay supposed back taxes owed immediately in order to avert arrest or deportation. Many IRS scam calls originate outside of the United States. You may conduct a “reverse phone lookup international” search online to verify the source of such calls. A “reverse phone lookup USA” search will help track the origin of a call placed within the United States.

What are Alabama Power Scams?

Here, scammers call Mobile County residents and claim to be representatives of Alabama Power company, demanding immediate payment on electric power accounts. The scammer requests a customer's bank or credit card information, warning that if payment is not received within an hour, the service will be disconnected. Another variation of the scam involves a scammer directly contacting a resident who recently made a payment on an Alabama Power account and falsely claiming that the payment did not process. In such a case, the scammer demands that the resident repays immediately. Note that Alabama Power does not call to request bank or credit card information. If you have any questions about the status of your Alabama Power account, call the company at (800) 245-2244. The automated voice system is available 24/7 to check account balances and status. You can use good reverse phone lookup tools online to quickly do a number lookup or reverse number lookup.

What are Mobile County Voice Phishing Scams?

A voice phishing scam usually starts with the scammer trying to verify whether a phone number remains active in use. Once a target answers the phone, the target's contact number is passed along for more aggressive tactics. Voice phishing scams can become quite sophisticated such that a scammer personalizes an attack to an individual target. You may become a potential victim if your personal information has been leaked somewhere online through a data breach.

Voice phishing scammers use auto-dialers to call as many people as possible. A real person comes onto the line once a victim answers the call. The real person then pretends to be an authority figure who describes a problem with the intention of luring the victim into giving away sensitive data, such as credit card information which will be used by the scammer to make as many purchases as possible before the victim locks the card. Many times, voice phishing scammers are looking for that information that will grant access to your bank accounts.  There are free reverse phone number lookup tools online to uncover who called and find who a number is registered to.

What are Mobile County Jury Duty Scams?

Jury duty scams are common in Utah. A jury duty scam is a classic impostor scam where a scammer claims to be a court employee, calls a potential juror and alleges that the target failed to report for jury service and indicates that a warrant has been issued for their arrest. The scammer lures the target into giving away identifying information such as the social security number and credit card numbers with an offer to cancel the arrest warrant. You can use free reverse phone number lookup tools online to verify the true origin of a call.

What are Mobile County COVID-19 Scams?

With more people working from home, scammers are exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic to target Mobile County residents with sophisticated scams. Some scammers target Mobile County residents by contacting them and claiming to offer testing, vaccinations, and other forms of treatments. Scammers use the heightened anxiety surrounding the vaccine to try and get residents’ personal information or money. These crooked individuals may offer COVID-19 test kits and Medicare prescription cards in exchange for sensitive information, such as Medicare information in the false pretense of checking the target's eligibility. Some even go as far as claiming to help obtain stimulus funds with targets’ personal information needed to expedite the process. Using free phone number lookup by name tools online, you can verify if the caller ID displayed on your phone is actually who the number is registered to.

What are Mobile County Social Security Scams?

In a social security scam, the Mobile County resident receives a phone call from an alleged Social Security employee telling them that their benefits have been suspended and must be reactivated. The caller may claim that the suspension is a result of a computer glitch or system error. To lift the suspension, the target is required to share their personal information, such as full name, phone number, Social Security number, and financial account details. Alternatively, the scammer will send an automated voice message instructing the target to call a specific phone number to correct a problem with their Social Security benefits. Upon calling the phone number, the target is lured into divulging their personal information.

Note that there is no reason to believe anyone, regardless of whom they claim to be, who says your Social Security benefits have been suspended. Social Security benefits are not suspended due to computer glitches. The Social Security Administration will also not call anyone to request their personal information. Government agencies rarely place phone calls to private citizens. On the rare occasion that they do, the citizen will be informed ahead. You can use a good reverse phone lookup tool to find out who called you and conduct a free phone number lookup by name online.

What are Robocalls and Spam Calls?

Robocalls are phone calls that use computerized autodialers to deliver pre-recorded messages. Telemarketers and political campaigners often use robocalls to deliver marketing and campaign messages. They can also be used by public entities to deliver public-service announcements. While robocalls serve several useful purposes, a large portion of robocalls received by Mobile County residents originate from scammers and are spam calls. Robocalls can be used by scammers to send marketing messages in order to get personal information that can be used in attacks against residents. Scammers can also use robocalls to collect your phone number to determine if you are right for future marketing opportunities.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), only a few kinds of robocalls are legal in the United States. These include messages from health care providers, debt collection calls, political messages, charity messages, and messages from health care providers.

Follow these guidelines to limit the odds of falling victim to scams perpetrated by robocalls:

• Do not answer calls with an unfamiliar caller ID. Let the call go to voicemail. Only return the call after determining that the caller is legitimate
• If you answer any call and you hear a pre-recorded message, do not press any button. Hang up immediately.
• Contact your telephone service provider to inquire about any available tools to block robocalls. Such call-blocking options may already exist in your current service plan. If they exist, ensure the functions are activated on your device. Additional robocall blocking protection may also be on offer from your service provider for a fee.
• Install a third-party call-blocking application on your phone, such as Truecaller, YouMail, Hiya, and Nomorobo. These are available on mobile phone online application stores.
• Register your telephone number with the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Do not Call List.
• Be on alert for caller ID spoofing. Scammers now have access to technology to make their caller ID look like one that you trust or know. Therefore, if a caller pressures you into divulging sensitive information, hang up immediately and report such.
• Report illegal robocalls to the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communication Commission. Federal agencies can collate such reports and identify the source of unwanted calls and also file legal actions against offenders. If you prefer to file a robocall report by call, contact the FTC on 1 (888) 382-1222 or the FCC on 1 (888) 225-5322.

How to Spot and Report Mobile County Phone Scams?

With each passing day, scammers come with new tricks to defraud their targets of money or sensitive personal information. While you should use reverse phone lookup services to check suspicious phone numbers, you should also be aware of several tell-tale signs of phone scams. Look out for these signs if you receive a call you suspect to be a scam call:

• An unsolicited call where the caller claims to be an employee of a government agency or public utility. Such entities seldom call residents or subscribers without having communicated by other means or you contacted them.
• An unsolicited call after a natural disaster seeking help, often financial, or offering a specific service related to disaster relief.
• Calls pitching products, services, or schemes with offers that sound too good to be true. Some examples include cheap travel packages, cash prizes, medical services, free product trials, debt reduction, and low-risk, high-return investments.
• An aggressive tone of voice from a caller trying to urge you into making a hasty decision. Many scammers threaten cutting utility services, fines, license revocation, and even jail if you do not provide sensitive information immediately. Resist such coercion tactics and end the call immediately. Take time to mull over the conversation and make calls to necessary persons or entities to verify the information before you.
• If a caller claims to represent a reputable company and demands that you make payment through unusual methods such as cryptocurrencies, gift cards, and wire transfers to unverifiable accounts, that is a red flag. Such payments, if made, are usually untraceable and difficult to retrieve.

Public institutions that assist Mobile County residents in dealing with scammers include:

• Mobile County District Attorney's White-Collar Unit: The Mobile County District Attorney provides information on trending scams in the state. If you have been a victim of a phone scam in Mobile County, contact the DA's White-Collar Unit at (251) 208-7712.
• Mobile County Sheriff's Office (MCSO): The MCSO provides law enforcement services over the whole of Mobile County. Mobile County residents who have been victims of phone scams can report such incidents to the Mobile County Sheriff's Office or local police departments in the cities and towns.
• The Alabama State Attorney General's Office: The Alabama Attorney General's Office maintains a consumer protection line at (800) 392-5658 or victim assistance line at (800) 626-7676. The Office has the legal right to prosecute residents engaging in fraudulent practices. You can also file a complaint online.
• Federal Trade Commission: One of the FTC's goals is to protect consumers from fraudulent practices in the marketplace. The Commission created the National Do Not Registry as a means to help citizens stop unsolicited calls. Telemarketers are required to avoid calling numbers added to the Registry. Calls received 31 days after adding your number to the Registry are likely spam calls.
• Federal Communications Commission: The FCC also protects telephone users by authorizing telephony companies to block robocalls and allowing victims of phone scams to file complaints online. The FCC also creates awareness on avoiding robocalls and phone scams through its website.