{"id":17025,"date":"2020-06-09T17:01:55","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T17:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.auslogics.com\/en\/articles\/?p=17025"},"modified":"2025-03-20T13:28:45","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T13:28:45","slug":"protect-from-google-voice-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.auslogics.com\/en\/articles\/protect-from-google-voice-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Stay Safe From the Google Voice Scam?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve used Google Voice before or are considering getting acquainted with the feature, it\u2019s good to be aware of Google Voice scams. This type of fraudulent activity can cause quite a bit of trouble for you and your Google Voice contacts. Thus, it\u2019s essential that you are aware of what it is, how to prevent it and, if you do fall victim to the scam, how to stop it.<\/p>\n

In this post, we will look into all of these questions and, hopefully, help you avoid most Google Voice troubles in the future.<\/p>\n

What Is Google Voice?<\/h2>\n

Google Voice is a service by Google that lets you make and receive calls and texts as well as use call forwarding \u2014 all free of charge. The service was first launched back in 2009 and has since become a must-have for a lot of users. However, with the introduction of more advanced smartphones, modern messenger apps and more, Google Voice started to fall behind \u2014 until the long-awaited update of 2017.<\/p>\n

Today, Google Voice remains a viable phone option that lets one make voice calls over a standard broadband internet connection. It\u2019s used by individual users as well as small businesses to keep their communication costs down. It\u2019s simply a convenient and more cost-effective alternative to traditional phone calls. Getting started with Google Voice is really simple \u2014 all you will need is a good internet connection and a microphone.<\/p>\n

The best thing about Google Voice is that it\u2019s almost entirely free \u2014 most features on the app don\u2019t require any payments. There are just a few occasions where you might need to credit your Google Voice account \u2014 for instance, when making international calls.<\/p>\n

What Is the Google Voice Scam?<\/h2>\n

Google Voice Scam is a fraudulent activity when your phone number gets hijacked and a scammer creates a Google Voice account in your name. They will then proceed to scam other people (technically, in your name) while remaining undetected. The scam is also known as the \u201cGoogle Voice Code Verification\u201d scam and it can victimize anyone who has ever displayed their phone number publicly on the Internet \u2014 for instance, when posting an ad. The scammer will then get in touch with the potential victim as if they were responding to the said ad. The scammer will then ask you to (under one pretext or another) to open up a message with a six-digit number. Once you have disclosed the code \u2013 your number is hijacked.<\/p>\n

How Does the Google Voice Scam Work?<\/h2>\n

The scam is typically associated with Craigslist, a popular ad website in the United States that features posts about jobs, housing, services, items for sale, wanted items, discussion forums and more. Most of the ads posted on the site to indeed contain a phone number \u2014 which is there for everyone to see. Thus, scammers can try to get to someone\u2019s Google Voice Account using this platform. So, a Craigslist user may get a call or message from someone pretending to be working for the site. The user will be asked to verify their number by sending back a verification code. In reality, however, Craigslist does not initiate calls for registered users \u2014 neither to verify their ads nor comments.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how it works:<\/h3>\n