BBB: Don’t Fall For Fake Verizon Emails

Verizon customers in southeast Idaho are getting emailed bills that claim to be from the wireless carrier. According to the emails, the bills are past due

But are they really?

Dale Dixon, president of the Better Business Bureau in the Snake River Region, said there are some ways to tell if an email is legitimate or a scam.

Dixon, who receives actual emails from Verizon, said that the scam artist takes pains to make the phishing email look like the real thing, down to the logos.

?It?s so real looking that people are starting to fall for it,? he said. ?We?ve gotten several calls about it in our Idaho Falls office.?

Dixon said a sure way to see if an email is fake is by examining the link before you click on it, which can be done on some devices by hovering your cursor over it. If the link leads to a third-party site, ?it is the tip-off that you?re dealing with a scam.?

Dixon emphasized that you never actually click on the link of any suspicious email.

He said once you know that an email or phone call is a scam, you should take the following steps:

— Hang up or delete.

— Independently verify the phone number. ?Don?t call the number that shows up in the caller ID, don?t call the number that shows up in the email,? he said. Call the company using a number you know is correct ? in this case, you could use a phone number from a previous (and real) Verizon billing statement.

— If you do owe the actual company, pay the bill.

?Just be careful, hang up and delete on these is the biggest thing we encourage people to do,? he said.