Live Life Team
If you find someone’s phone number in your missed calls and don’t know who it’s from, what should you do?
It is increasingly common in this technological age for individuals to feel some reluctance when it comes to speaking on the phone. With text messaging, messenger services, and other social media making it less necessary to communicate vocally, it has become a point of anxiety for many to engage in live, vocal conversations over the phone.
However, in a similar vein, it is increasingly common to provide one’s personal information when creating online accounts, subscribing to services, or making in-store purchases at a variety of establishments. The data that is collected, including your phone number, may be shared by the company with other businesses who want to implement targeted marketing campaigns. Because of this, the phone conversations we often wish to avoid are thrust upon us by companies looking to gain our business by cold calling us.
The result of this data sharing is that phone numbers can end up in the hands of those we don’t know with relative ease. Then, people find someone’s phone number calling them that they don’t recognize. How do you know if this phone number belongs to a friend or foe?
Perhaps the most reliable way to investigate the source of the unknown number is to do a quick online search of the number. Often, if the caller is an establishment or a well-known scammer, you won’t have to search long to find a forum filled with comments from individuals in similar circumstances. If you happen to know the geographic location the call came from, you can input this information as well to increase the chances of pinning down the source.
While these calls can be undesirable, don’t be afraid to pick up and, with healthy scepticism, ask who is calling! Beware of scammers, but be open to the possibility of a job offer, a doctor’s appointment, or a new friend.
