What are Brazos County Area Codes?
Brazos County area code identifies the Numbering Plan Area (NPA) in Brazos County as designated by the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). Area codes are the first sets of three-digit numbers in North American phone numbers. The Public Utility Commission of Texas administers area codes in the state as authorized by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Currently, the only active area code in Brazos County is the 979 NPA.
Area Code 979
Area code 979 is a Texas telephone code created from a split of the 409 NPA in 2000. It serves Brazos County and parts of several neighboring counties in Texas. The major cities in Brazos County under the 979 NPA include Bryan, College Station, and Kurten.
What are the Best Cell Phone Plans in Brazos County?
A 2018 CDC Survey reported that an estimated 67.9% of the total adult population in Texas used wireless-only telephone services. In contrast, only about 2.5% of them used landline-only services. The survey also revealed that 1.4% of Texan children under 18 years used landlines as their only means of telephony. According to the report, 76.6% of them had adopted wireless-only telephony services. This suggests a shift in telecommunications preference towards wireless services among Texans, including those residing in Brazos County.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) a technology that converts voice calls into digital signals and is available to Brazos County residents by several providers. It uses IP networks, especially broadband internet connections, to provide an alternative to traditional telephony services. It is more affordable, efficient, and flexible than regular telephone services. VoIP offers additional features that are not available in conventional phone systems.
Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint offer the best cell phone plans for Brazos County residents, with varying degrees of coverage depending on location. For instance, the City of Bryan has about 98% coverage by AT&T and 86% T-Mobile coverage, while T-Mobile and Sprint offer about 80% and 68% coverage, respectively.
What are Brazos County Phone Scams?
Phone scams are a menace in Brazos County and are scams perpetrated over the phone. In Brazos County, phone scammers use telephone services such as live phone calls and text messages to steal residents' money and obtain personal information. They often employ varying tricks to fool their targets into believing they are legitimate. In some instances, they will be aggressive, abusive, and threaten residents with all manner of extreme legal actions to get them to comply with their requests. At other times, scammers may appear calm and willing to help county residents. Whichever approach they take, scammers' primary aim is to extort their marks and commit identity and financial theft.
Since these scams are conducted over the phone, Brazos County residents are encouraged to get familiar with reverse phone number lookup services. Phone number lookup applications are great at uncovering the identities of unknown callers and can help residents avoid phone scams. The Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG) is the primary consumer protection agency in Texas, and it educates residents on how to avoid scams, including phone scams. In Brazos County, the Brazos County Sheriff's Office (BSCO) is responsible for investigating reported phone scam incidents. The following are common phone scams targeted at Brazos County residents:
What are Brazos County Arrest Warrant Scams?
The Brazos County Sheriff's Office (BSCO) reiterates that its deputies do not threaten residents or solicit money over the phone. The agency warns of scammers who impersonate its employees to rip off Brazos County residents. While preying on residents with arrest warrant scams, fraudsters identify themselves as employees of the BSCO. They spoof their targets’ Caller IDs to make it appear as if they are receiving calls from the Sheriff's Office. Some of these scammers mention fake names and badge numbers and usually sound convincing. In some cases, they may have information about their marks. The scammers often tell their targets that they have outstanding warrants and even forge warrant numbers to fool them and appear genuine. Once they have their targets' attention, the scammers will warn them to make payments immediately to resolve their issues. Odd payment channels such as wire transfers and gift cards are their preferred mediums of receiving payments. If they realize their targets are being hesitant, the scammers will quickly resort to threatening them with arrests.
Although these scammers favor phone spoofing, reverse phone lookup free services can return helpful information on their identities. The Sheriff's Office will never call residents to demand immediate payment to cancel warrants. If you receive a phone call from someone claiming to be with the BCSO and asking you to make payments via specific channels, know that it is a scam call. Payments made using such methods are usually irrecoverable.
What are Brazos County Social Security Scams?
These are scams in which fraudsters call and pretend to be employees of the Social Security Administration (SSA) to cheat Brazos County residents out of their money. Phone number search applications can assist residents in ascertaining if a call is from the SSA or otherwise. These callers inform their targets about concerns with their social security numbers (SSNs) and usually claim they were used in certain crimes under investigations. Usually, targeted residents are informed that they risk arrest or stricter actions against them by law enforcement unless they stopped using their SSNs. These scammers will then offer to issue their victims new SSNs for some fees, which they must pay immediately. They favor payment by gift cards, wire transfers, and prepaid debit cards. During their conversation, these callers will request their targets to confirm their current SSNs and inquire about other personal information for supposed verifications. They usually threaten to suspend their targets' benefits and possibly turn them in for arrest by law enforcement if they fail to provide the required information. Do not be coerced into sending money to or sharing confidential information with unknown persons who claim to be with the SSA over the phone.
Anyone who falls victim to a social security scam can report it to the Office of the Inspector General, SSA online or call 1 (800) 269-0271. Employees of the SSA will never contact residents over the phone to solicit money or personal information. Know that the SSA has your SSN on file and will not ask you to confirm it if they have any reason at all to call you. Typically, the SSA does not initiate phone calls to residents, except on request. Their usual means of communication is mail. Brazos County residents who receive such telephone solicitations should hang up immediately and contact the SSA on their verified phone numbers to substantiate the callers' claims.
What are Brazos County Court Scams?
Scammers impersonate Brazos County courts and contact residents in an attempt to steal money and obtain confidential information deceptively. These fraudsters employ live phone calls, text messages, and voice messages to perpetrate court scams. Typically, they inform their targets that they have outstanding cases in the courts and risk immediate arrests if not resolved quickly. The callers will provide their targets with websites, purportedly managed by the courts, where they are asked to pay their tickets. They sometimes communicate these websites by the courts via text messages. Note that these sites may appear legitimate but are not being run by the courts. The websites will require victims to provide some personal information that the scammers will harvest to commit identity theft. After a while, the scammers will contact their marks by text messages and instruct them to call specific phone numbers provided in such texts and pay their fines immediately. Although the phone numbers will appear exactly as the courts', they are being spoofed. Residents who call such phone numbers directly from the messages received will not get the courts but will be answered by the scammers' accomplices in an attempt to rip them off. They have a preference for taking payments via wire transfers and prepaid cards.
Brazos County residents who get these types of solicitations are advised never to call the numbers provided from their text messages. If advised with a link to pay a ticket for an outstanding case, do not open such a link as it is a ploy to glean your personal information. Contact your local courts directly on their official phone numbers if you believe you may have an actual case in any court. You can verify the authenticity of these types of calls using phone lookup applications.
What are Brazos County Look-Alike Phone Number Scams?
Do not be fooled into answering incoming calls by phone numbers that appear on your caller ID information display as your phone number or an almost identical number. The best response in such a situation is to ignore the phone call or reject it immediately. Scammers using this ploy prey on the curiosity of targeted Brazos County residents to steal confidential information. Usually, the callers will claim to be with their marks' phone companies and inform them that their phone profiles have been compromised and must be fixed without delay. To resolve this and have absolute control of their phone numbers, the callers will ask the targets to confirm some personal information, including their social security numbers (SSNs). Such information, if provided by victims, is used to commit identity and financial theft.
If you receive this type of call, gather as much information as possible but do not share any personal information with the caller. Once you end the phone call, contact your phone company and provide them with whatever information you may have gleaned for investigation. Run the phone number used to call you through any application that provides a free reverse phone lookup service to retrieve information about the caller.
What are Robocalls and Spam Calls?
Robocalls are auto-dialed telephone calls that deliver recorded messages to bulk phone numbers. They were designed for legitimate use by telemarketers, political organizations, and the government in communicating with large audiences with minimal human involvement. Because of robocalls' ability to reach a mass audience at a relatively low cost, scammers have incorporated them into their scam schemes to extort unsuspecting residents. Robocalls initiated for malicious purposes are illegal and can be regarded as spam calls. Spam calls are irrelevant phone calls placed to random phone numbers of persons who have not approved them. Reverse phone number lookup services can help ascertain if an incoming call is a robocall and prevent a person from falling victim to robocall scams. To avoid robocall inundation and prevent spam calls, the following are your best response:
- If you answer a phone call and hear a recorded message, hang up immediately. Disregard any instructions that prompt you to press specific numbers to speak with a live operator or remove yourself from their calling list.
- Add your phone number to the National Do Not Call Registry and Texas No-Call List to reduce the influx of unwanted telemarketing calls. Once included on the DNC list for 31 days, your number becomes restricted from unwanted telephone solicitations. Any unsolicited call that comes through your phone after this is a potential scam call.
- Report incidences of robocall abuse to the FTC by calling 1 (888) 382-1222 or online.
- Use the call-blocking feature on your phone to block identified robocall and spam phone numbers or download a third-party call-blocking application for the same purpose.
How Can You Spot and Report Brazos County Phone Scams?
Although fraudsters keep adopting new tricks to cheat Brazos County residents out of their money, resident's ability to spot phone scams will help them stay ahead of scammers. Generally, they can uncover the identities of phone scammers using reverse number lookup services to search phone numbers of unknown callers. The following are signs of phone scam attempts in Brazos County:
- The caller instructs you to act immediately by sending money and dissuades you from contacting anyone to confirm their claims.
- Receiving unsolicited calls despite listing your phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry and Texas No-Call List.
- The caller is unwilling to entertain questions on what they are offering you and wants you to act fast, claiming they only have limited slots.
- The caller pressures you into disclosing confidential information. Legitimate companies will not do that. They sometimes claim to be with familiar government agencies to request personal and financial information. Never fall for it.
- The caller requests that you pay via suspicious payment channels such as gift cards, bitcoins, and wire transfers. These are all unofficial means of transacting, and payments on them are difficult to trace and reverse.
Many government agencies are involved in the fight against Brazos County phone scams. They implement policies to protect consumers, provide phone scams awareness, provide tips on avoiding them, and encourage residents to report phone scam incidents. These agencies include:
Federal Trade Commission - The FTC manages the Do Not Call Registry and encourages residents to enroll their numbers in a bid to reduce unsolicited calls. Phone scams perpetrated with unsolicited calls can be reported to the FTC online or by calling 1 (888) 382-1222.
Brazos County Sheriff's Office - The BCSO regularly publishes scam alerts to keep residents abreast of prevalent scams. Brazo County residents who are phone scam victims can file complaints with the BCSO by calling (979) 361-4900.
Texas Office of the Attorney General - Brazos County residents can file reports of phone scam incidents with the OAG by calling 1 (800) 621-0508 or online.
Federal Communications Commission - The FCC tips residents on blocking unwanted calls and avoiding phone scams. Brazos County residents can report phone spoofing scams and other phone scams to the FCC online or call 1 (888) 225-5322.