What are Newport News City Area Codes?
Area codes are the first set of three-digit numbers that appear before the main telephone numbers in North America. Based on the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), area codes spot the geographical areas where calls originate from. Area codes are sometimes referred to as Numbering Plan Areas (NPAs), and they serve specific geographical areas as the original area codes in those areas. Furthermore, most original area codes have overlays due to the exhaustion of the original area codes. Hence, some cities may have more than one area code serving them. Identifying the geographical location attached to each area code and discerning where calls are placed from can be done by conducting area code lookups with free reverse phone lookup services.
Two area codes serve Newport News City; they include:
Area Code 757
Area code 757 was created on July 1, 1996, as an overlay of area code 804. Apart from Newport News, some cities that area code 757 covers include the Cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Belle Haven, Norfolk, Poquoson, Newport News, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Smithfield, Virginia Beach, and Williamsburg.
Area Code 948
Area code 948 came into service on February 5, 2020, and serves as the overlay area code 948.
What are the Best Cell Phone Plans in Newport News City?
In Newport News City, AT&T offers the best coverage, with 96% coverage in relation to other phone carrier networks in the county. Verizon and T-Mobile have the second-best coverage with 88% coverage each. Sprint has the least coverage with 70% coverage. While these phone carrier networks offer relatively good coverage, they may be adversely affected by harsh weather conditions.
The 2018 National Center of Health Statistics survey shows the percentages of adults and minors in Virginia that use wireless telephones and landlines. Judging from this survey, both adults and minors in the state prefer using wireless telephones over landlines, although the preference gap is wider among the minors. The telephone status survey shows that 49.1% of the Virginia adult population used only wireless telephones, while 4.9% of Virginia adults solely used landlines as their preferred telephony service. On the other hand, 62.3% of minors in Virginia used only wireless telephone services, while only 2.3% of minors used landlines as their only telephony service option.
VoIP is the acronym for Voice over Internet Protocol, and it operates with strong internet connections to facilitate voice and multimedia communications between one or several senders and recipients. Residents and businesses in Newport News City actively use VoIP for telephony services for various reasons, majorly due to its flexibility and affordability. VoIP has advanced features that do not require any extra charges once both parties (the caller and the recipient) have strong internet connections. VoIP is less costly than other telephony services despite its numerous advanced features. Some of these features are name dialing, anonymous calling, call routing, voicemail/ call forwarding, conference calling, auto line attendants, advanced call management, call analytics, and call rejection.
What are Newport News City Phone Scams?
Newport News phone scams are fraudulent ploys and gimmicks perpetrated via telephone communications. Scammers use these ploys to trick unsuspecting residents and defraud them of their hard-earned money. They also use them to deceitfully obtain residents’ personal and financial information for identity theft. Typically, the scammers claim to need this information for official updates and sometimes to issue certain benefits. Residents should never disclose any private information such as social security numbers, mothers' maiden names, credit card numbers, passwords, etc. Phone scams also involve scammers exploiting innovative technological development in telecommunications, such as Caller ID spoofing and robocalls. Residents must not wholly trust every Caller ID, because scammers sometimes spoof the Caller IDs of legitimate entities.
However, conducting phone number searches using good reverse phone lookup services will help spot spoofed Caller IDs. Some entities that scammers mostly impersonate include the IRS, Social Security Administration, law enforcement agencies, health departments, financial institutions, and even the residents’ relatives. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) helps educate residents on how to identify illegal Caller ID spoofing and block unwanted calls.
Prevalent Newport News City phone scams include:
What are Newport News City Outstanding Warrant Scams?
Residents have recently been experiencing phone scams where random individuals call them, claiming to be from Newport News City. The imposters then tell their targets that they have outstanding warrants for their arrest and they need to send money to them to avoid getting arrested. Typically, these individuals use actual names of officers on the Newport News Police Department's force so that they can sound convincing. They may also spoof the Newport News Police Department's Caller ID. Beware of such scams and use phone number lookup tools to answer the question “who called me?” if you receive suspicious phone calls. Note that the police department will never ask for money from residents for an outstanding warrant. Do not respond to such calls by making payments or sharing your personal and financial information.
What are Newport News City IRS Office Scams?
IRS scams are widespread mostly during tax seasons but may occur outside these seasons. They involve scammers posing as Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents and targeting taxpayers with multiple scams. They call residents telling them that they owe taxes and also threaten them with arrest, deportation, revocation of licenses, or other legal actions if they do not pay specified amounts. IRS scammers and most other scammers in the city usually insist that payment is made via prepaid cards, PayPal, gift cards, bitcoins, or wire transfers.
The IRS warns that residents that receive such calls should ignore the requests and report to the IRS directly. The IRS never calls residents without first prompting them with multiple mails. Besides, the IRS will never request payment over the phone. Make sure that any personal and financial information you want to submit to the IRS is submitted only to the verified IRS official website. Be wary of Caller ID spoofing and use a reverse phone number lookup tool to conduct a phone lookup free to identify a caller.
Furthermore, the IRS creates awareness on the red flags of IRS scams and how to know when it is the IRS calling. Directly report IRS scams to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) online or over the phone at 1-800-366-4484.
What are Newport News City Charity Scams?
Particularly during periods when the city just experienced a catastrophic event or a natural disaster, scammers try to take advantage of the goodwill of residents. They contact residents, making emotional appeals, and soliciting donations. These scammers either impersonate existing charity organizations or come up with nonexistent charity organizations in a bid to solicit donations for supposed good causes. However, after the donations are made, they embezzle the money and stop communicating with the donators.
Residents should never trust callers soliciting donations and instead use reverse phone lookup services to determine the authenticity of such callers’ identities. Some of these services allow phone number lookups free. Residents should also verify the charity organization the callers claim to represent, although it is safer to make donations to legitimate organizations directly instead of random solicitors.
What are Newport News City Grandparent Scams?
Grandparent scams involve con artists impersonating the grandchildren of older residents and seeking financial aid from them. Generally, these scammers sound like they are under pressure and are in emergencies while requesting immediate payment. The callers may claim to have been involved in accidents, hospitalized or arrested. The scammers also request that the grandparents keep the calls secret and not tell other relatives because they are ashamed of the supposed “situations.” Persons contacted should not make any payments in response to such solicitations for money until they verify the callers’ story and identity. Phone number search tools help answer the question, “who is this number registered to?” Residents can maximize the use of these tools.
In most cases, scammers insist that the recipients go to stores to purchase gift cards worth the amount of money requested. After which, they request the PIN or serial number on the gift card, authorizing them to get the cash off the gift card.
What are Robocalls and Spam Calls?
Robocalls are programmed calls structured to deliver messages to many people within a specific time frame. Robocalls can either be legal or illegal. They were originally designed to be solely informational, delivering emergency announcements and creating awareness for good causes. In recent times, scammers have begun to misuse robocalls, using them to defraud residents of their hard-earned money or even steal their personal information. Most illegal robocalls include instructions for residents to be transferred to live representatives or stop receiving the calls. Residents should not follow such instructions and simply hang up to avoid engaging with robocalls that are most likely scams.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) published the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 to regulate the use of robocalls. Pursuant to this Act, individuals cannot just randomly send robocalls to residents without prior consent. Robocalls sent to residents without first obtaining their written consent are illegal and can be reported. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) exempts the robocalls listed below from the permission requirement:
- Robocalls for political campaigns
- Robocalls by charitable organizations
- Debt collection robocalls
- Robocalls by legitimate health institutions
- Purely informational robocalls
Spam calls are unwanted calls that contain messages that do not have significant relevance to the receipts. Spam calls are usually sent in bulk like robocalls and may have fraudulent aims, while others simply constitute nuisance by advertising or proselytizing.
Take the following precautions to combat spam calls and robocalls:
- Utilize reverse phone look up services to detect robocalls and block them using call-blocking tools on your cell phone. Your phone network provider may also provide you with more call-blocking options.
- Avoid answering robocalls, but if you mistakenly do this, terminate the call immediately and do not follow any instructions given during the call.
- Report unsolicited calls to the FTC through the online complaint assistant page or call 1-888-382-1222 to report.
- Include your phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry to limit the number of robocalls you receive. Your phone number becomes actively registered after 31 days of registration, and you may then report any robocalls that you receive on your registered phone numbers.
How to Spot and Report Newport News City Phone Scams?
Phone scammers generally come up with scams based on contemporary events, such as pandemics, tax seasons, etc. Other times, they capitalize on the emotions of residents and come up with fraudulent schemes aimed at defrauding them. Hence, residents must be alert and always use reverse phone look up tools to conduct phone number searches to verify callers’ IDs. Some red flags of scammers include:
- Demanding payment before supposed winnings are awarded.
- Insisting that victims pay with cash, gift cards, prepaid cards, bitcoins, wire transfers, and other means that makes it impossible to trace the money back to them.
- Using fear and pressure schemes to make the victims act without duly considering their actions.
- Making requests while issuing threats of arrest, deportation, license revocation, and other severe consequences.
- Telling the recipient not to disclose details of the call and trying to discourage them from verifying information given during the call.
- Making highly emotional solicitations that cannot be verified.
- Investments or businesses that appear too good to be true or “once in a lifetime opportunities”.
- Offers to help recover money that was lost money to scams for a fee.
Newport News residents can report phone scams to these government agencies:
Newport News Police Department - File a report to the Police Department to report cases where you suspect that the department was impersonated and other minor crimes. You may also call 911 for emergency cases and 757-247-2500 for non-emergencies.
Office of the Attorney General of Virginia Consumer Protection Section - The AG’s office provides an Agency Locator that helps direct you where to file your complaint. You may file a complaint online or download and complete the complaint form. The completed form should be submitted to:
Office of the Attorney General of Virginia
Consumer Protection Section
202 North Ninth street
Richmond, Virginia 23219
Fax: 804-225-4378
For inquiries, the Consumer Protection Hotline is 1-800-552-9963 (calls from Virginia) or (804) 786-2042 (calls from the Richmond region or outside Virginia). The active hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m, Monday to Friday.
Federal Communications Commission - Victims of illegal robocalls, Caller ID spoofing, and other phone scams can report to the FCC by filling out the online complaint form.
Federal Trade Commission - Victims of identity theft, illegal Caller ID spoofing, illegal robocalls, unwanted telemarketing, texts, or spam calls, and other scams can report using the FTC’s online consumer complaint assistant. The FTC can also be reached by calling 877-FTC-HELP or 877-ID-THEFT.
Federal Bureau of Investigation - Residents can report general fraud and criminal matters to (202) 324-3000.