What are Rock Island County Area Codes?
Area codes are three-digit prefixes that specify the Numbering Plan Areas (NPAs) where certain calls were placed. Area codes prefix every ten-digit North American telephone number created per the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). Identifying area codes is made easy with area code lookup tools. Individuals can use them to determine where specific calls originate from.
Rock Island County is mainly covered by one area code, which is:
Area Code 309
Area code 309 covers the western part of central Illinois. It was among the original area codes created in October 1947. Some of the cities it covers are Rock Island, Bloomington, Canton, Minonk, Macomb, Moline, City of East Moline, East Peoria, Galesburg, Kewanee, Morton, Normal, Pekin, Peoria, and Silvis. The area code also serves many smaller communities within the western part of central Illinois.
What are the Best Cell Phone Plans in Rock Island County?
The four best wireless service providers in Rock Island County are AT&T, iWireless, Verizon, and Sprint. While the four each provide excellent service, AT&T has the best coverage with 90%. iWireless has 86% coverage while Verizon has 82%. Sprint, with 68%, is the wireless service provider with the least coverage in the county.
The National Center of Health Statistics survey published in 2018 shows the telephone status survey of adults and minors. The survey reports that 59.8% of the Illinois adult population only used wireless telephones. In contrast, only 3% of the adults in Illinois used landlines as their only telephony service. In comparison, 68.9% of minors in Illinois exclusively used wireless telephone services, while just 0.5% of minors used only landlines. The survey shows that most adults and minors in Illinois use only telephones instead of landlines.
Rock Island County residents and businesses are switching from traditional telephone services to VoIP in large numbers. VoIP is the acronym for Voice over Internet Protocol. It enables multimedia communications over high-speed internet connections. VoIP offers a wide range of services that are considerably more affordable than other traditional networks. Some of these services are call analytics, name dialing, conference calling, anonymous calling, call rejection, auto line attendants, call routing, advanced call management, voicemail/ call forwarding, etc. These services may vary, depending on the subscription plan the user subscribes to.
What are Rock Island County Phone Scams?
Rock Island phone scams are illicit schemes developed by scammers to defraud residents over the phone. Some scams solely aim to steal resident’s personal information for identity theft, while others steal money and other valuables from residents. Typically, scammers design innovative ways to steal from unsuspecting residents and deceive them into disclosing their personal information. The advancement of telephony innovations has made phone scams to become more sophisticated and difficult to identify. Scammers can now spoof the Caller IDs of government agencies and legitimate businesses. This makes their calls appear legit. However, residents can exploit the use of good reverse phone lookup services, which help identify spoofed Caller IDs.
Furthermore, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) educates residents on illegal Caller ID spoofing and ways to avoid falling victim to it. The FCC also informs residents of the processes of using available call blocking tools and resources.
Some common phone scams reported in Rock Island County include:
What are Rock Island County Grandparent Scams?
Grandparent scams target senior citizens in the county. In these scams, fraudsters try to defraud senior citizens by calling them and claiming to be their grandchildren. They pretend to be in difficult situations that require immediate financial aid. The fraudsters take advantage of the emotional vulnerability of their targets since they know that older persons are more likely to be compassionate. The fraudsters usually speak with a sense of urgency, claiming to have been arrested, hospitalized, or involved in accidents outside the state. Senior citizens should be wary of such scams as the fraudsters may have gathered some information about them and their families from social media. This makes the fraudsters sound convincing, erasing any doubts the victims may have. The fraudsters mostly request secrecy, pleading that the targets do not tell other relatives about the call because they are ashamed of the situation. Residents should ignore such pleas and not transfer any money to them until their claims have been verified.
Persons that receive such calls can ascertain the authenticity of the call by performing phone number searches. Free reverse phone lookup tools will also help answer the question, “who is this number registered to?”
What are Rock Island County Arrest Warrant Scams?
Scammers pose as officials of the Rock Island County Sheriff’s Department or other law enforcement agencies. These scammers may spoof the impersonated entities’ Caller IDs to make the calls appear legit. They then tell victims that they have warrants out for their arrest for committing certain crimes or failing to report for jury duty. They add that consequently, warrants have been issued for their arrest. The scammers then request money to cancel the warrants and avoid arrest. They give strict instructions on the payment method, requiring payment to be made only via bitcoins, gift cards, prepaid cards, and wire transfers.
In other cases of this scam, residents receive voice mail messages supposedly from the Rock Island County Sheriff’s Office. The messages tell the recipients that the Sheriff’s Office needs to speak with them about a civil matter. They then tell the recipients to call the office back with a specific phone number. Here, residents will be manipulated into divulging their personal information or making payments. Individuals can first use reverse phone number lookup tools to determine who the phone numbers are registered to.
Persons with questions about civil process matters should call 309-794-1230 and ask for extensions 3424, 3402, or 3416.
What are Rock Island County Lottery Scams?
In Rock Island, fraudsters target residents with lottery scams. The fraudsters tell the residents that they have won certain attractive lotteries, prizes, luxury packages, and other winnings. They make the winnings appear very lucrative in order to get residents to fall victim, but they request immediate upfront payment before the winnings are awarded. They claim that the upfront payments are for processing fees, taxes, etc. Note that offers like these are usually scams because legitimate entities will never request upfront payment before winnings are awarded. Such offers should be well-researched by conducting phone number searches to identify who called. The businesses the callers claim to represent should also be researched via background checks.
What are Rock Island County Charity Scams?
Charity scams involve fraudsters posing as legitimate charitable organizations in a bid to deceive unsuspecting residents. Fraudsters mostly take advantage of catastrophic incidents that occur in the county, such as storms, fire, pandemics, etc., to appeal to the emotions of residents. They pretend to be seeking help for less privileged persons and victims of the catastrophic events. The fraudsters make highly emotional solicitations for donations that will eventually be embezzled.
Residents should be wary of charity scams and only donate to charitable organizations that they are familiar with and have verified. Note that these fraudsters may also hide their phone numbers and copy the Caller IDs of legitimate charitable organizations. A reverse cell phone lookup can help expose such manipulation and ascertain who called.
What are Robocalls and Spam Calls?
Robocalls are calls made using computerized autodialers to deliver recorded messages to a target audience. Several entities use robocalls to disseminate information to many persons within a short time. Legitimate robocalls are solely informational and do not link to live calls. However, fraudulent robocalls contain prompts that may lead the recipients to be scammed. The prompts may be for recipients to press certain numbers to unsubscribe from the calls. They may also be to speak with live agents or call them after the robocall with the phone numbers given. Spam calls are like fraudulent robocalls as they are sent in bulk to several persons without their consent. The messages they deliver are irrelevant to the recipients. They are mostly for advertisement or proselytization. Such calls may not necessarily be fraudulent, but they are annoying and constitute nuisances to the recipients. In contrast, fraudulent robocalls aim to steal recipients’ valuables and personal information.
Residents may take advantage of the FCC’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991 to report every robocall they receive without giving their prior consent. The TCPA was established to regulate the use of robocalls. It mandates willful consent as a requirement for persons that seek to send robocalls.
According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), only the robocalls listed below may be sent without prior consent:
- Legitimate health institution robocalls
- Charitable organization robocalls
- Informational robocalls
- Debt collection robocalls
- Political campaign robocalls
Although not answering robocalls is the best way to avoid robocall scams, you can take these steps if you unknowingly pick them:
- Terminate the call immediately and use your phone’s in-built call-blocking application to block the phone number from sending future calls. You may also reach out to your phone network service provider to get more call-blocking options.
- Do not follow any prompts given during the call because doing this may lead to more robocalls.
- Sign up with your phone number on the FTC’s National Do Not Call Registry to limit robocalls. Any robocalls you receive 31 days after registering are most likely fraudulent.
- Report unsolicited robocalls to the FTC online or call 1 (888) 382-1222 to report.
How to Spot and Report Rock Island County Phone Scams?
Phone scams have become rampant in Rock Island; consequently, residents must be cautious and vigilant when receiving phone calls to avoid falling victim to these scams. Listed below are red flags of phone scams; residents should look out for them and hang up if they encounter any.
- Requests for financial aid with fabricated claims
- Demands for upfront payment for alleged winnings like gifts, lottery, award, etc. Usually, the scammers say the upfront payments are meant for processing fees or taxes
- Seemingly lucrative investment and business opportunities that have zero risk factors with high returns
- Demands to keep the details of a call secret
- Debt recovery schemes that require upfront payment
- Schemes of intimation implemented through threats of arrest, deportation, revocation of license, and other severe consequences for non-compliance with demands for payment or the personal information
- Strict instruction on payment methods where bitcoins, wire transfers, gift cards, cash, prepaid cards are the only approved payment methods. Such payment methods are largely untraceable and irretrievable
- Requests for personal information. Never share your social security numbers, mothers' maiden names, credit card numbers, passwords, etc. over the phone
- Refusal to answer questions asked in order to gain clarity
Handy tools like reverse phone look up can help determine who called you. Phone scams can be reported to any of these government agencies:
Rock Island County Sheriff’s Office - Use the contact details below to report phone scams and general crime issues.
Rock Island County Justice Center
1317 Third Avenue,
Rock Island IL 61201
Phone: (309) 794-1230
Fax: (309) 794-9979
The office may be visited from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM, Monday through Friday. Call 911 if the case requires immediate action.
Illinois Attorney General - Provides regular Consumer Alerts to help residents avoid being victims of scams. To report a scam, complete the Consumer Complaint Form and submit it to:
Illinois Attorney General
Consumer Fraud Bureau
500 South Second Street
Springfield, IL 62701
217-782-1090
Federal Communications Commission - Complaints of illegal robocalls, Caller ID spoofing frauds, and other phone scams can be filed by completing the online complaint form.
Federal Bureau of Investigation - Complaints of general fraud and crimes can be reported to (202) 324-3000.
Federal Trade Commission - Submit online complaints to file complaints of illegal Caller ID spoofing, identity theft, illegal robocalls, unwanted telemarketing calls, texts, or spam calls, and other scams. Victims can also report by calling 877-FTC-HELP or 877-ID-THEFT.