If you needed one more reason not to pick up the phone, scammers are now impersonating little-known government agencies in an attempt to swindle you out of your hard-earned money

In a notice on its site, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Administration (commonly known as CISA) warns Americans that phone scammers have begun impersonating the agency online

Such impersonation scams are nothing new However, unlike a sudden phone call from a business, potential victims are more likely to react and take action if they think the person on the other end of the phone is a government agency

Like other similar scams, this one involves someone pretending to be CISA calling to send cash, cryptocurrency, or gift cards However, no government agency in the US or in any other country would ask you to do this

To prevent others from falling for this particular scam, CISA asks recipients to note the number of the scammer and report it directly to the agency Likewise, it may be worth contacting law enforcement agencies as well

As Bitdefender points out in a blog post detailing this scam, according to the FTC, Americans lost more than $1 billion to scammers last year In fact, the amount lost to identity theft scams like the one described above exceeded $11 billion, which is three times the amount lost as of 2020

Most of the reported scams involve account security alerts, subscription renewals, giveaways, discounts, money claims, trouble with law enforcement, and package delivery problems that are still popular among fraudsters

Unlike phishing emails, phone scams can take the time necessary to realize they are fake because you are talking to a real person on the other end of the phone Therefore, it is very important to screen the calls

While most good phones and many phone providers offer features to combat fraud and cheating, no one does it better than Google with its Pixel phones In addition to years of support and other cool perks, the search giant's call-screening feature alone is likely reason enough to buy a Pixel over other Android phones Not only does it screen your calls, but it also lets you use Google Assistant to talk to the person on the other end of the phone like a real person

Even if you don't switch to Pixel, there are many things you can do to avoid scammers First, do not answer calls from unknown numbers unless you expect to receive a call If you do answer such a call, do not give any personal information that you would not feel comfortable sending in an email or message And most importantly, do not give your credit card details over the phone or agree to send them money

Phone scams have been around for a long time and are not going away anytime soon We just need to be able to recognize the signs of a phone scam and not let our emotions get in the way