What are Guadalupe County Area Codes?
Area codes are the sequence of the first three-digit numbers at the beginning of the local phone numbers in the United States. Guadalupe County area codes identify the various Numbering Plan Areas (NPAs) in the county. They were established by the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) and assigned to geographic locations as demand arises. The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) manages and implements Guadalupe County area codes as parts of the NPAs in Texas. Guadalupe County is currently served by three area codes. These are:
Area Code 512
Area code 512 is one of the original 86 area codes put into service in 1947 and initially served central and southern Texas, including Guadalupe County. The major cities in Guadalupe County within the 512 NPA include Staples and Kingsbury.
Area Code 830
Area code 830 is a Texas telephone code created from a split of the 210 NPA in 1997. It covers various counties in Texas, including Guadalupe County. In Guadalupe County, area code 830 serves Seguin, Kingsbury, and McQueeney.
Area Code 737
Area code 737 is an overlay code for the 512 NPA introduced to service in 2013. It also serves the locations under area code 512.
What are the Best Cell Phone Plans in Guadalupe County?
Only a small percentage of the total population in Texas still uses landline telephone services. Wireless telephony adoption is now widespread among both adult and young phone users. A survey conducted by the CDC in 2018 confirmed this. According to this report, about 2.5% of the adult population in Texas used only landlines for telephony services. However, an estimated 67.9% of them had adopted wireless telephony services exclusively. The survey also revealed that over 60.0% of the Texan children population (under 18 years) lived in wireless-only households.
Several Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) and the major carriers are present in Guadalupe County and provide above-average network coverage. MNVOs are smaller prepaid carriers that offer affordable telephony services using the major carriers' network architecture. In the City of Seguin, AT&T extends the best network coverage at 90%, while T-Mobile has a 76% spread. Verizon and Sprint have no presence in the city, but some MNVOs provide services to support the coverage of both T-Mobile and AT&T.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a telephony service option that conveys communication over reliable internet connections. Guadalupe County residents are encouraged to take good advantage of the broadband services in the county for telephony. VoIP is compatible with most internet-enabled devices and offers audio calling, text messaging, and video conferencing at cheaper rates than regular telephony services.
What are Guadalupe County Phone Scams?
Scams that run on telephony services and are conducted over the phone in Guadalupe County are known as Guadalupe phone scams. Most phone scams aim to obtain naive persons' confidential information fraudulently and steal their money. With the assistance of phone spoofing technology, scammers usually have increased chances of being successful in their scam schemes. However, residents who know how to search the reverse number lookup of unknown phone numbers can identify spoofed phone calls and avoid scams. Fraudsters favor impersonating reputable businesses and familiar government agencies. In many instances, they spoof their targets' Caller IDs to display the official phone numbers of these legitimate entities to trick them into answering their phones. Usually, scammers use phone services such as live calls, automated calls, and text messages to perpetrate scams.
Fraudsters often commit identity and financial theft with whatever information they obtain fraudulently. Reverse phone number lookup applications can help Guadalupe County residents ascertain if suspicious-looking phone numbers are truly fraudulent and prevent them from being defrauded. The Guadalupe County Sheriff's Office (GCSO) encourages residents to sign up for alerts on press releases, which periodically include scam alerts. Such scam alerts usually describe in detail how fraudsters prey on residents and the various tricks they employ. Residents who educate themselves with the alerts are more likely to avoid scams than those who do not.
The commonly perpetrated phone scams in Guadalupe County include:
What are Guadalupe County Social Security Scams?
Scammers are spoofing Guadalupe County Caller IDs and pretending to be employees of the Social Security Administration (SSA) in an attempt to rip them off. If you get such a call, use a phone number search application to search the phone number and ascertain whether it is a spoofed phone call. If it is, then it is a potential scam call. These scammers often inform their targets that their Social Security Numbers (SSN) have been compromised and request some information, including their SSNs’ last four digits. They often claim they require such information for thorough verifications. For victims who provide this information, the fraudsters will inform them that law enforcement is investigating them for certain crimes linked with their SSNs and are subject to arrests. They eventually commit identity theft with such information.
Typically, the scammers will offer to help their victims out of the mess and claim to know the officers investigating their cases. They will promise to talk to law enforcement to drop such bogus criminal cases on the condition that they must get paid. Wire transfers and gift cards are their preferred channels of receiving payments. Legitimate employees of the SSA do not solicit money or threaten residents in unsolicited calls. To avoid social security scams, never share personal information with unknown persons over the phone, even if their phone numbers appear to be those of the SSA. Guadalupe County residents who believe they are social security scam victims can file complaints online with the Office of the Inspector General, SSA.
What are Guadalupe County Tax Scams?
In this fraudulent scheme, scammers call Guadalupe County residents and pretend to be employees of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in a bid to extort them. They sometimes spoof the IRS official phone numbers to gain trust while making attempts to defraud their targets. However, conducting reverse phone number searches on unknown incoming calls can help residents identify spoofed numbers and avoid tax scams. These scammers usually accuse their targets of owing taxes to the IRS that require immediate payment or risk facing arrest. On some occasions, these fraudsters work as cliques where other persons call targeted residents and claim to be with law enforcement. They will present real badge numbers and confirm the claims of the initial callers from the IRS. Typically, these accomplices will say they instructions to effect arrests for targets' failure to pay taxes as and when due. Fraudsters who engage in tax scams request payment by preloaded cards, wire transfers and sometimes ask their targets to share credit card information to complete payments.
Do not give out sensitive information to anyone over the phone unless you are sure the caller is legitimate. The IRS does not insist on specific methods for tax payments and will never request payment over the phone. Know that threats to bring in law enforcement to arrest taxpayers for owing taxes is a telltale sign of tax scams. If you receive such a call and are unsure of your tax status, hang up and contact the IRS on 1 (800) 829-1040 to verify the caller's claims. Applications that provide good reverse phone lookup services will help you find the names and addresses linked to the phone numbers used by these fraudsters. You may file a complaint with the Inspector General of Tax Administration on 1 (800) 366-4484 if you fall victim to a tax scam.
What are Guadalupe County Computer Repair Scams?
Have you ever received a call from someone claiming to be with your computer company and wondered, "who is this number registered to?" Applications offering suspicious phone number lookup services can help you uncover the caller's real identity. In tech support scams, fraudsters pretend to be technical employees of familiar computer companies such as Microsoft or Apple and offer fake support services. They usually aim to obtain their targets' identities and steal their money and may sometimes spoof the official phone numbers of the tech firms they impersonate. These scammers will offer to fix the virus infections on their targets' computers but at a fee and often scare them with the likelihood of losing their files to further delays. Once they gain their targets' trust, the scammers will request remote access to their PCs to enable them to determine the level of repairs required and then fix the issues.
Residents who grant access to their computers by unknown callers in the guise of tech companies usually end up becoming victims of identity and financial fraud. The scammers often take advantage of such access to glean their victims' information and sometimes install malware that will enable them to retrieve identifying information from such PCs in the future. They favor wire transfers and gift cards as means of payment for their phony repairs. Guadalupe County residents should be wary of these scams and avoid them by all means. Do not be coerced into complying with the caller's request if you receive this type of call. Legitimate tech companies will never ask you to grant them remote access to your computer or request payment for repairs over the phone.
What are Guadalupe County Lottery Scams?
Some Guadalupe County residents are receiving unsolicited calls from unknown persons claiming to be representatives of familiar or international lottery companies. These are attempts to cheat them out of their hard-earned money. The most surprising thing is that even residents who did not enter any competition also fall victim to these scams. Services that offer reverse phone number lookups can help residents who receive such calls to retrieve the real identities of the callers. The callers often claim that their targets won overly attractive prizes in a lottery and request a few personal information for supposed data verification. They usually commit identity theft with such information if provided by targeted residents. The targets are told to pay money to cover processing fees and taxes if they wish to redeem such winnings. The scammers usually insist on receiving payments by wire transfers.
It is imperative to state that no one can win a lottery in a competition whose tickets they did not buy. Also, no legitimate lottery firm will request an upfront payment from winners before claiming their prizes. Do not share information with or send money to such persons if they call you. Phone number search applications can help you confirm if the phone numbers used to make such requests are registered by legitimate lottery companies, hence preventing scams.
What are Robocalls and Spam Calls?
Robocalls are automated phone calls that deliver recorded information to selected phone numbers. Telemarketers, government, and political groups all use robocalls for the legitimate purpose of reaching out to a mass audience at the same time. Robocalls are now, however, wielded by fraudsters in various scam schemes to extort money and personal information from unsuspecting persons. Spam calls are those irrelevant calls sent out to random phone numbers of persons who never indicated an interest in getting such calls. Just like illegal robocalls, spam calls are inundating and sometimes annoying. Yearly, robocalls form the predominant part of phone scam complaints at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). You can take the following actions to prevent the inundation of robocalls and avoid robocall scams:
- Run any unknown caller's phone number through services that offer free reverse phone lookups to determine if they are robocalls.
- Register your phone number on the DNC Registry by calling 1 (888) 382-1222 from that number or online. If you get robocalls after 31 days of registration, they are potential scams. Similarly, you can enroll your phone number on Texas No-Call List to reduce the inundation of robocalls.
- Hang up once you realize it is a robocall. Trying to listen further may have you take actions that will lead to more robocalls and ultimately defraud you.
- Register reports of robocalls and spam numbers with the FTC online or call 1 (888) 382-1222.
- Install a third-party call-blocking application on your smartphone to block identified robocalls and spam numbers if the options provided by your telephone company seem expensive.
How Can You Spot and Report Guadalupe County Phone Scams?
Phone scammers often attempt to defraud Guadalupe County residents using various tricks. While most of these tricks are ordinary restyling of old scam schemes, others are entirely new ploys. Scammers may claim to be with reputable businesses or pose as employees of government agencies. Whatever form it takes, fraudsters usually want to earn their targets' trust before defrauding them. Applications that offer reverse phone lookup free services can help residents uncover the true identities of unknown callers and avoid most scams. Many warning signs, if observed, can prevent Guadalupe County residents from falling victim to phone scams. These include:
- The caller speaks to you in poor grammar with a heavy accent. They do so to hide their identities or are fraudsters from overseas who attempt to express themselves in their targets' accents.
- Receiving unsolicited calls despite joining the DNC Registry and Texas No-Call List is an indication of scams.
- A caller that poses as an employee of a government agency and threatens arrest for not giving in to their demand is likely a scammer.
- An unknown person who calls out of the blue to request confidential information is a potential fraudster.
- Request by unverified persons asking you to make payments via wire transfers, cryptocurrencies is likely a scam. Payments made on such channels are hard to trace or recover.
The best way to prevent scams remains education. Many government agencies educate residents on identifying phone scams to reduce phone scam incidents to the barest minimum in Guadalupe County. These agencies include:
Guadalupe County Sheriff's Office - The GCSO investigates reported cases of phone scams. Residents can file reports of phone scam incidents with the GCSO in-person at 42617 N. Guadalupe Street, Seguin, TX 78155, or call (830) 379-1224.
Texas Office of the Attorney General - Guadalupe County residents who are phone scam victims can report to the OAG online or call 1 (800) 621-0508.
Federal Communications Commission - The FCC initiates and implements policies to protect consumers and combat phone scams in the United States. Residents can report phone spoofing scams and other scams online to the FCC.
Federal Trade Commission - Guadalupe County residents can file phone scam complaints with the FTC by calling 1 (888) 382-1222 or online. The FTC manages the DNC Registry, a pool of phone numbers exempt from telemarketers' unsolicited calls.