What Are the Best Cell Phone Plans in Kalamazoo County?
Area codes are the first three digits that appear at the beginning of each North American telephone number under the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). These area codes represent specific Numbering Plan Areas (NPA), although some NPAs are covered by more than one area code, which may be referred to as an overlay area code. Area codes enable individuals to be able to identify the origin of calls. Individuals can conduct area code lookups using free reverse phone number lookup services. The Michigan Public Service Commission assigns and administers area codes in the state.
Area Code 269
Area code 269 is the telephone area code that serves the southwest portion of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. It also covers the Cities of Allegan, Decatur, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, Buchanan, Paw Paw City, Marshall, Portage, Otsego, Plainwell, St. Joseph, Dowagiac, Benton Harbor, Niles, Three Rivers, Sturgis, South Haven, Berrien Springs, and Bridgman. Area code 269 was split from area code 616 on July 13, 2002. AT&T and Frontier are the major local telephone carriers for area code 269.
The four dominant network providers in the United States, including T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T are active in Kalamazoo County. T-Mobile with 96%, has the best network coverage compared to the other three in the county. Verizon is next to T-Mobile with 84% and Sprint follows with 70%. Finally, AT&T has the least network coverage with 58%. Usually, densely populated areas of the county are likely to experience poor phone network quality. Bad weather conditions may also adversely affect network quality.
According to the National Center of Health Statistics survey for 2018, 57.3% of the Michigan adult population used only wireless telephones, while 4.7% of the Michigan adult population used only landlines. When juxtaposed with the telephone status survey of minors under the age of 18 in Michigan, 69.5% used only wireless telephone services, while 1.7% of the minors used only landlines. This shows that both Kalamazoo County adults and minors prefer to use wireless telephones for telephony services instead of landlines.
The use of VoIP for telephony services in Kalamazoo County has significantly grown, almost the use of surpassing traditional telephones. VoIP, Voice Over Internet Protocol enables voice and multimedia communications between multiple parties over internet connections. It has several vital features despite being very affordable. Some of its features include advanced call management, call analytics, anonymous call rejection, and call routing.
What Are Kalamazoo County Phone Scams?
Kalamazoo County phone scams involve the perpetration of fraudulent schemes aimed at defrauding individuals. Some phone scams also majorly aim to steal their personal and financial information from unsuspecting county residents. The information the scammers gather is used to impersonate legitimate entities or steal their money. Phone scammers typically use advanced telephony services to carry out their plans flawlessly and in an untraceable manner. These advanced telephony services, such as VoIP and robocalls, make it easy to impersonate legitimate entities and government agencies. The Federal Communications Commission provides residents with information on how to avoid falling victim to illegal Caller ID spoofing. They also provide safety precautions and enlighten residents on how to activate call blocking on their phones to eliminate unsolicited calls that may turn out to be from scammers.
County residents can enable reverse phone number lookup applications on their mobile phones to flag any suspicious calls and block them. Reverse phone number lookup services also help uncover the identities of phone scammers. Common phone scams in Kalamazoo County are:
What are Arrest Warrants Scams
Arrest warrant scams involve scammers impersonating representatives of the Sheriff’s Office in a bid to deceive county residents. These impostors tell their targets that they have warrants out for their arrests and they need to pay to avert an impending arrest. They threaten county residents with severe consequences if they refuse to make payment via wire transfers, prepaid debit cards, or iTunes gift cards. Such payment methods are tricky and can prove difficult to trace. In addition, processing a refund for such payments may not be feasible.
While these scammers sometimes use regular phone numbers to place calls, they may also hide their phone numbers and spoof the Caller ID of the County Sheriff’s Office. This makes it look like the calls are actually from the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office. Ignore calls like these and verify them using websites or apps that allow reverse phone lookup free. It is important to note that the Sheriff’s Office and the other law enforcement agencies never demand payment over the phone. Do not give out your personal and financial information to anyone over the phone. If unsure of who called, contact the Sheriff’s Office directly at 269-383-8821.
What are COVID-19 Scams?
COVID-19 scams take advantage of the pandemic and defraud unsuspecting residents. Here, scammers contact residents for various COVID-19 related issues, such as the purchase of fake or non-existent self-use testing kits, treatment, cures, vaccines, etc. They claim that all the targets need to do is to make payments and these kits will be delivered to them in their homes. The scammers sometimes demand the recipients’ financial information to process payment. Be wary of such calls and do not make any payment or give out financial details. You can also verify a caller’s claims by contacting the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), or a local health department.
In other cases of COVID-19 scams, the scammers claim to be representatives of legitimate health institutions and ask for the recipients’ personal details such as their social security numbers, in the name of contact tracing. Residents should ignore such requests and hang up immediately as legitimate health institutions never request residents' personal information during contact tracing. Typically, personal information given to scammers is used for identity theft. You may perform a suspicious phone number lookup to answer the question “who called me?”
What are IRS Scams?
IRS scams are more prevalent during tax seasons. In these scams, scammers pose as IRS agents and contact residents, requesting payment for back taxes. They also back up their demands with threats of deportation or arrest if the targets do not pay up. Residents should be wary of such scams as the IRS never calls residents out of the blue without prior notification. Individuals that are contacted in such manner should hang up and not make any payments over the phone. They should also not disclose their personal and financial information. In situations where victims of such calls actually owe back taxes, they can contact the IRS to pay directly to them. Payments via bitcoins or gift cards are usually fraudulent.
IRS scams can be reported to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) online or by calling 1-800-366-4484. A victim of such a call can also run a suspicious phone number lookup using a free reverse phone lookup website or mobile app to unveil the identity of the caller.
What are Charity Scams
Charity scams involve the fraudsters pretending to be representatives of legitimate charitable organizations to swindle county residents. These scammers deceive county residents with the claim that the funds donated will be used to help less privileged individuals. However, contrary to their claims, the fraudsters end up misappropriating the donated funds and breaking off contact with the victims. It is important that you first verify a charitable organization and even the so-called representative before making any donations to them. On the other hand, you may directly make your donation to a verified charitable organization where you are sure your money will not be misappropriated.
Note that charity scams are usually widespread after the occurrence of catastrophic events that result in several property losses, injuries, and loss of lives. Always use reverse phone lookup services to verify the legitimacy of the charitable organizations and the callers. In a case where a call showing the Caller ID of a legitimate charitable organization is received, take active steps to search the Caller ID on a reverse phone look up. If the Caller ID was spoofed, you will most likely not receive any results from the phone number search.
What are Robocalls and Spam Calls?
Calls that disseminate pre-recorded messages to a group of persons are called robocalls. Robocalls are largely informational, although some contain instructions. Generally, these instructions are for the recipients to press certain keys or numbers to be transferred to live representatives or unsubscribe from future calls. However, robocall scams use this as bait to identify active phone numbers and target them with more robocalls. According to the Federal Trade Commission, legitimate robocalls strictly disseminate vital information and are placed with the residents’ consent. However certain calls do not require consent. They include:
- Robocalls from legitimate charities
- Robocalls for debt collection
- Robocalls for political robocalls
- Robocalls from legitimate health institutions.
Unsolicited calls for commercial advertisement, proselytizing, and other purposes not directly beneficial to the recipients are known as spam calls.
Take note of the following steps to combat Illegal robocalls and spam calls:
- Hang up the instance you identify that you have answered a robocall. In addition, do not follow any directives given during the calls.
- Report the call through the FTC’s online complaint assistant or call 1-888-382-1222.
- Use a reverse phone number lookup mobile application or website to flag and block robocalls.
- Add all your personal phone numbers to the National Do Not Call Registry to restrict robocalls and other unsolicited calls.
How to Spot and Report Kalamazoo County Phone Scams?
Despite the cover of impersonation that scammers put on, identifying phone scams is not completely impossible. Reverse phone lookup services can be used to conduct suspicious phone number lookup to identify scam callers. Kalamazoo County residents should take note of the following red flags of phone scams listed below. They include:
- Unwanted calls from unfamiliar phone numbers - Do not pick up such calls without first conducting phone number searches to find out who called. You can also use reverse phone lookup services to block suspicious phone numbers from future calls. Phone network service providers provide other call blocking options that can be explored.
- Your personal or financial information is requested for any reason - Ignore such a request and block the person that contacted you.
- The caller poses as a staff of a government agency and demands payment - Verify the caller’s claim by contacting the government agency the caller claims to represent. Never make any form of payment in response to such a call. Government agencies and legitimate businesses never request payment over the phone. Get the impostor’s identity using a reverse phone lookup service and report the case to the law enforcement agency nearest to you.
- The caller refuses to reveal their identity during the call - Conduct a suspicious phone number lookup to unveil the identity of the caller.
- The caller claims you have won a “prize or incentive” and seeks that you first make payment before you receive the prize: Do not make any payment nor give out your financial details.
Kalamazoo County residents can report phone scams to these government agencies:
Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Department - Report a crime online to the Sheriff’s Department or call 269-383-8745. 911 should be called for emergency cases.
Michigan Consumer Protection Division of the Attorney General's Office - Report by calling 517-335-7632 or toll-free 1-877-765-8388. You can also report online.
Federal Communications Commission - Fill out the online complaint form to report a scam.
Federal Trade Commission - Report a complaint to the FTC via the online consumer complaint assistant.