Telephone number: 6019604182

We may have entered the digital age, but the telephone remains a key weapon in scammers' arsenals. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received about 1.8 million fraud complaints in 2021 in which a contact method was identified, and in 36 percent of cases a call was the swindler’s way in.

I groggily answered the ringing phone at 6am, and was alarmed to hear an official-sounding robotic voice. “This is the alert system with Visa (or Mastercard) account services!” It went on to tell me that there were two suspicious charges to my Visa card.