What are Clark County Area Codes?
Two area codes serve Clark County. These are area codes 812 and 930. Area codes are three-digit designations for numbering plan areas (NPAs). These were first introduced in the US in 1947 when AT&T implemented the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). The NANP divided the country into 86 NPAs with unique area codes. This made call switching and routing more efficient and made long-distance calls easier to connect. Today, there are a lot more area codes in the country to accommodate rising numbers of phone users. Each phone number issued in the US has an area code easily recognized as the first three digits.
Area Code 812
One of the original 86 area codes created in 1947, area code 812 covers most of the southern part of Indiana. It still retains the boundaries it had when it was first created. Rather than shrink the NPA when the area code got exhausted, an overlay plan was enacted to create a new area code. Communities in Clark County served by area code 812 include Charlestown, Clarksville, Jeffersonville, and Sellersburg.
Area Code 930
Area code 930 was created on July 31, 2013 but the first phone numbers bearing the code were issued on March 7, 2015. It is an overlay code for the 812 NPA. Therefore, it serves the same communities in Clark County as area code 812 including Jeffersonville, Clarksville, and Charlestown.
What are the Best Cell Phone Plans in Clark County?
A 2018 wireless substitution survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics concluded that most of the residents of Indiana have made the switch from landline phone services to wireless phone services. The results of the survey showed that 63.3% of the adult residents of the state solely used wireless phone services for telecommunication. On the other hand, only 4% of this demographic still relied exclusively on landline phone services. The survey also indicated that 75.4% of minors in the state were wireless-only phone users while 2.4% of them still used landline phones exclusively.
Major national carriers and regional operators offer cell phone plans for the residents of Indiana and Clark County. AT&T boasts full coverage of the state while Verizon covers 98.9% of its zip codes. T-Mobile covers 96.5% of Indiana. Generally, regional carriers are mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) relying on the network services of bigger carriers. These carriers have smaller coverages but usually offer cheaper plans. They can charge subscribers less because they pass on some of the savings from their bulk purchases of network services from major carriers.
VoIP may also help residents of Clark County save on their phone bills. VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol is a technology that enables communication over the internet. VoIP phone services transmit voice and video calls over the internet as data packets. Therefore, they rely on broadband internet access and are more cost-effective for users with fast internet connections. VoIP phone plans are definitely more affordable than landline and cell phone plans for long-distance calls and teleconferencing calls.
What are Clark County Phone Scams?
These are telephone frauds committed by scam artists targeting residents of Clark County. Scammers use phone calls and text messages to lure new targets and turn them into victims. They may also use sophisticated phone tools and services such as caller ID spoofing, robocalls, and voice phishing. To avoid phone scams, residents of Clark County need to learn how to recognize and block scammers. They can do so with helpful phone tools and services such as call blocking and reverse phone number lookup.
To learn how to recognize phone scams, residents need to know the telephone frauds that are most commonly reported in the communities. Popular phone scams in Indiana include COVID-19 scams, grandkid scams, jury duty scams, and IRS scams.
What are Clark County COVID-19 Scams?
These take different forms, with fraudsters seeking to exploit their targets’ ignorance about the pandemic, government efforts to curb it, and restrictions put in place. COVID-19 scammers may offer unsuspecting residents fake tests or surcharge them for travel fares and consumer goods. These fraudsters can also offer bogus work-from-home schemes or exploit the goodwill of residents to ask for donations for their fake charities.
Beware strange callers asking for money or personal information while referencing the COVID-19 scams. Ask such callers to identify themselves and then make sure to use phone number free search to verify their identities. You can also call the agencies, companies, or charities they claim to represent to verify their claims and identities.
What are Clark County Grandkid Scams?
In these scams, fraudsters call elderly residents and claim to be law enforcement officers, court officials, or attorneys representing their grandkids. They claim these loved ones have been arrested and need urgent financial help to get out of jail. The scammers then ask for money sent via Green Dot cards or iTunes cards. Residents of Clark County should know that law enforcement officers and court officials do not call to ask for money. Legitimate representatives of the government also do not ask to be paid with Green Dot or iTunes cards.
If contacted by a stranger claiming a loved one needs money to get out of jail or have legal representation, use a reverse phone search to identify the caller. Call the loved one directly or other family members to corroborate the stranger’s story. Alternatively, call the court or law enforcement agency the unknown caller claims to represent to confirm the status of the loved one.
What are Clark County Jury Duty Scams?
These are also impostor scams in which scammers pretend to be court officials and law enforcement officers. These fraudsters call their targets to tell them officers of the law are on the way to arrest them for missing jury duty. To avoid getting arrested, these scammers demand that their victims buy prepaid cards and call out the numbers to them on the phone.
Jury duty scams rely on scare tactics and their victims’ ignorance about how their local courts work. If you receive a call from someone claiming to be a court official and then asking for money, hang up immediately and call the court directly to make enquiries. You can also easily foil the scam by investigating the caller with a reverse phone number search. This may reveal that the number used has been flagged in previous scams or that the subscriber registered to the number is not the local court.
What are Clark County IRS Scams?
In these scams, fraudsters impersonate employees of the Internal Revenue Service. There are two broad categories of IRS scams. One aims at defrauding the victim by claiming they must pay outstanding taxes while the other is used in identity theft and snags the victim by offering bogus tax refund. Scammers using the first tactic are usually rude on the phone and are quick to threaten their target to force them to send money. Those employing the second tactic sound friendly and polite while asking their victims to provide confidential information such as their Social Security numbers.
Clark County residents can avoid IRS scams by learning how the IRS works. The IRS does not call taxpayers to ask for owed taxes. They use mail correspondences to communicate outstanding taxes and tax refunds. So, if you receive an unsolicited call from a stranger claiming to work for the IRS, do not believe them even if they provide a legitimate employee number and your phone’s caller ID indicates the call is from the IRS. If you can see the caller’s number, use a cell phone number lookup search to confirm that they do not work for the IRS. Contact the IRS directly to confirm owed taxes and tax refunds.
What are Robocalls and Spam Calls?
Robocalls are automated phone calls delivering pre-recorded messages to lots of phone users. Once mostly used by political groups, telemarketers, and organizations delivering public service announcements, robocalls are now common tools of scammers and spammers. They are cost-effective mass communication tools that are easy to set up and require little effort to keep running. These attributes are the chief reasons scammers use robocall campaigns to fish for new targets for the fraudulent schemes.
Like robocalls, spam calls are unsolicited and unwanted calls. However, they are likely to be placed by an actual person rather than an auto-dialer. Most US phone users receive a lot of these unsolicited calls every day. To curb the scourge, telecommunication companies and lawmakers are striving to find lasting solutions. Even then the most effective ways to stop or curtail robocalls and spam calls rely on the actions of phone users. Clark County residents can cut down on the number of unwanted calls reaching them by taking these steps:
- Let calls from unknown numbers go to voicemail where you can later review the messages left by callers and discard robocalls and spam calls
- Hang up as soon as you realize you are on a robocall or spam call
- Do not follow instructions given during a robocall or spam call on what to do to stop receiving further calls. Following such prompts will only lead to more calls
- Filter calls from unknown or blacklisted numbers by setting up the call blocking feature of your phone. Carriers and some third-party apps also offer call blocking services relying on crowdsourced blacklists
- Identify repeat unknown callers with phone number lookup. Such searches will also provide useful information to include in reports submitted to law enforcement
- Add your phone number to the National Do Not Call Registry as well as the Indiana Do Not Call List to stop receiving robocalls from telemarketers. Telemarketer robocalls and spam calls received 31 days after joining the national registry and 3 months after joining the state lists are illegal and should be reported
How to Spot and Report Clark County Phone Scams?
Residents of Clark County can easily spot telephone frauds by looking out for phone scam red flags. Signs that an unknown caller is likely a scammer include:
- Use of threat - scammers are quick to threaten their targets especially when pretending to be authority figures. They will use threats of arrest, prosecution, deportation, and license revocation to force their victims to send money or release confidential information
- Aggressive sales tactics - scammers running consumer and investment scams give their targets very little time to consider their once-in-a-lifetime offers. They pressure their targets to send money and sign up immediately by claiming their offers will expire very soon or offering very steep discounts for the first few people to get their deals
- Requesting money by unofficial means - while pretending to represent government agencies and reputable organizations, scammers ask for official payments in cash or by wire transfer, prepaid debit cards, gift cards, mobile app transfers, or cryptocurrencies
- Failure to provide supporting documentation - to avoid paper trail leading back to them, scammers refuse to provide written documentation supporting their lofty claims and establishing their identities
If you discover any of these tell-tale signs of phone scams when talking to a strange caller, investigate them with a reverse phone lookup search to confirm their true identities. Report such callers to law enforcement and the proper authorities. These organizations use scam reports to apprehend and prosecute fraudsters and also to educate the public about current scam tactics. Residents of Clark County can report telephone frauds to the following agencies:
- The Consumer Protection Division of the Office of the Attorney General of the State of Indiana - this Division represents the state’s consumer protection agency and investigates consumer complaints regarding scams, dishonest business practices, and violations of the state’s Do Not Call List. Report a scam using the links provided on the Division’s complaint page
- The Treasury Inspector General Administration (TIGTA) - the TIGTA is the federal agency tasked with investigating IRS scams including impersonation scams. Report an unknown caller claiming to work for the IRS by submitting an IRS impostor scam complaint to the TIGTA online
- The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) - this is the federal consumer protection agency responsible for safeguarding Americans against unfair and deceitful business practices. The FTC can investigate any scam involving consumer transactions and bogus investment opportunities. Residents of Clark County can report consumer scams to the FTC online or by calling (877) 382-4357The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) - the FCC is the federal regulator overseeing the nation’s communication industry including its telecommunication sector. It also enforces the National Do Not Call Registry and investigates reports of illegal robocalls, spam calls, caller ID spoofing, and phishing. Report any phone scam to the FCC’s Consumer Complaint Center