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It’s the holiday season and with Christmas just a week away it’s important to protect yourself and your loved ones from holiday related phone scams. The most common form of phone scam during the holidays are iTunes gift card scams. We’ll go over what you need to know about these scams and how to protect yourself.

Calls From Local Numbers

You may have noticed an uptick in the amount of calls you’ve recently been getting from unknown numbers this is due to the holidays and end of the year approaching. Scammers are taking advantage of the holiday season to trick vulnerable people into giving them money via iTunes gift cards.

Phone callers will demand that their victims pay bogus hospital bills, utility bills, back taxes, and prize fees, among other things. They will use scare tactics and threats in order to get what they want out of the people that they are targeting.

What to Do If You’re Being Targeted by iTunes Gift Card Scams

If you ever receive a call from someone asking that they make a payment via an iTunes gift card, or any type of gift card/pre-paid card, hang up immediately.

You should only use iTunes gift cards when making a purchase directly from iTunes or Apple. Never share the code on the back of the card with anyone over the phone.

Other Ways to Protect Yourself

Always be careful when answering a call from a phone number that isn’t in your contact book. If the call is unsolicited and claims to be from a company or organization that you trust inform them that you will call back at a later time. Once you’ve done this verify the phone number that called you using a white pages app on iPhone or the official website of the company or organization the caller claimed to be from.

Telemarketers can be the worst, they call at inconvenient times, they only want your money, and sometimes they don’t leave you alone! Find out how you can use reverse phone lookups to help cut down on the amount of nuisance calls your receive, and what else you can do to cut down on these calls.

Add Your Number To The Do Not Call Registry

We’re talking about the official Do Not Call Registry, not the one some scammer calling tried to get you to sign up and pay for! The FTC has maintained a Do Not Call Registry for some time now and if your number is in it telemarketers will have to pay a big fine for calling you.

The Do Not Call Registry is completely free and doesn’t cost you anything to add your number to it. Though it’s not a perfect solution the FTC does make these unscrupulous businesses pay when they get caught.

It’s quick and easy to add your phone number, so if you haven’t already done so what are you waiting for?!

Use Reverse Phone Lookups

We say it a lot here at Css-Al but don’t give these callers the time of day and use reverse phone lookups to choose which calls you will take and which ones you will avoid.

Make sure you download an app that allows you to run reverse phone lookups on iPhone on the numbers you don’t know before answering a call or returning a missed one. A lot of these apps even have automatic spam call blocking features that you can turn on.

Spam call blocking features will cut down on the amount of nuisance calls you receive. They use technology to show them which numbers make frequent calls that go unanswered. They use this to build a list of blocked phone numbers.

Don’t Interact With The Caller

The best way to avoid unwanted calls and phone scams is to simply not interact with the caller. Don’t answer the call and let it go to voicemail, or simply hang up when the automated message or caller goes into their sales spiel. This may seem rude, but it will save both you and the caller’s time and after awhile they’ll stop trying to contact you so often.

It’s 2017, everyone is or has used online dating or a dating app. You may even know couples who met off Tinder, Plenty of Fish, Match.com or any of the many online dating sites and applications that exist. Maybe they’re even married now! The biggest problem with online dating is how do you really know who you’re talking to. With a caller ID app for iPhone you can figure out the true identity of the person you’re talking to.

What Is Online Dating?

Maybe you’ve been a holdout or maybe you’re just now finding yourself single after the end of a long-term relationship. For me personally, the latter happened. After three years of dating I found myself single. I was totally overwhelmed by the popularity of online dating, something I had never used before.

Online dating is great for meeting people that you wouldn’t normally meet in your day-to-day life. To start, choose which site you want to use, we recommend going with a free option at first just to try it out and see how it is. Pick a few good photos, write up a short bio about who you are and you’re ready to start matching with other singles.

How to Stay Safe?

With online dating there’s the big question: Is it safe? The answer is yes it can be, but you need to be smart. That means meeting in a public place and finding your own means of transportation there for the first time you meet.

It’s also important to tell a friend or family member where you’ll be going and who you’re meeting. Chances are your date will be fine, but it’s always important to be cautious the first time meeting a stranger.

You can also use a caller ID app for iPhone to ensure your date is who they say they are before meeting them.

Using a Caller ID App for iPhone When Dating

Whether you meet a person at a bar, in traffic, or online, you can run their phone number through a cell phone number app lookup for iPhone to check out who they are. This is just another way to verify the identity of your online date.

There are a lot of these types of apps so be sure to look in the App Store for one with a lot of good reviews.

The iPhone is considered one of the best inventions in the history of mankind. If you have it, you might as well make the most of it, right? Here’s a list of the best iPhone apps that you should think of having on your iPhone including streaming music apps, iPhone reverse number lookup apps, and more.

1Password

With the tons of apps you’re using and online accounts you have how can you keep track of all your passwords? A password is one of the most valuable possessions of an individual in this day and age. The free 1Password app helps you maintain a unique password for multiple apps and online accounts!

Doorman

Ever had a stolen package? Been afraid your Amazon package wouldn’t arrive on time or at all? Here’s an app that can help you relax when shopping online. Doorman has an address that it shares with its app users where they can have the packages sent. They will forward the package to you per the schedule you request. They can hold the package for 30 days!

CallerSmart

Callersmart is a great phone tracer app for the iPhone. It helps people check a mystery number’s safety and block calls from unwanted callers such as debt collectors, sales calls and scam calls. It’s online phone book is well updated as well.

Waze

There are digital maps and then there’s Waze. The best thing about this app is that it doesn’t only serve as a GPS, but it also creates a re-route if there’s bad traffic, construction, or accidents.

Spotify

Who doesn’t listen to music? Spotify is a free streaming service that has one of the most comprehensive music collections. It also has a “radio option” which gives users the opportunity to listen to new music and discover new artists. Music can also be synced to your phone so you can enjoy your favorite playlists offline.

Head on over to the App Store now and download some these useful free apps!