What are Martin County Area Codes?
An area code refers to the sequence of three-digit numbers at the beginning of North American phone numbers. It differentiates the Numbering Plan Areas (NPAs) in a state as established by the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). The Florida Public Service Commission implements and manages area codes in the state, including Martin County. NANPA offers area code lookup on its website. There is currently one area code serving Martin County.
Area Code 772
Area code 772 was split from area code 561 and officially launched into service in November 2002. The major cities and communities in Martin County covered by this area code include Indiantown, Jensen Beach, Hobe Sound, Stuart, and Sebastian.
What are the Best Cell Phone Plans in Martin County?
As reported by a 2018 survey conducted by the National Center of Health Statistics (NCHS), an estimated 60.9% of Floridian adults (over 18 years) used wireless-only telephones. This is in sharp contrast to the 4.0% representing those that had landline phones as their sole communication devices. The data also indicated that about 72.9% of young Floridians (under 18 years) had adopted wireless-only telephony services, while only 1.7% of them still used landlines exclusively.
The phone carriers with the best cell phone plans in Martin County are Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint, each with varying levels of network penetration. Verizon has the best coverage of about 98%, while T-Mobile offers 80% network reach. AT&T provides about 74% network coverage, while Sprint covers 64% of the county.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a technology that allows phone calls using broadband internet connections rather than regular phone lines. It has been widely adopted by Martins County residents as an alternative to traditional telephony services. VoIP services are compatible with computers, specialized VoIP phones, and landline phones (connected to adapter). Residents may use VoIP to make both local and international calls at relatively affordable rates.
What are Martin County Phone Scams?
Martin County phone scams involve the use of telecommunication services with the intent to defraud residents of the county. Phone scams are usually targeted at obtaining money, personal information, and financial data from unsuspecting residents. Fraudsters use such information to commit identity and financial theft. Scammers favor impersonation and use phone spoofing technology to increase their chances of success.
Martin County residents are encouraged to report phone scam incidents to relevant government agencies. Information provided in their reports may assist law enforcement in taking appropriate actions against the phone scammers. They can also use reverse phone lookup services to identify these scammers. Some of the commonly perpetrated phone scams in Martin County are:
What are Jury Duty Scams?
Scammers pose as official court personnel to deceive Martin County residents and extort money or confidential information from them. They achieve this by calling targeted residents to inform them that they missed jury duty and risk severe legal punishments. The scammers demand payments either as penalties for missing jury duty or fees to avert punitive actions. The Martin County Clerk of Court warns that legitimate court employees do not solicit money over the phone. Residents who receive such calls can verify their jury service records by contacting the County Clerk at (772) 288-5568. They can also use free phone lookup services to discover the identity of the callers. Any resident slated to appear for jury duty in Martin County can confirm the details online to avoid being fleeced by scammers.
What are IRS Impersonation Scams?
Fraudsters disguise themselves as officials of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to defraud their targets. Typically, these scams are prevalent during the tax filing seasons. The scammers call residents and ask them to make tax payments or to disclose confidential information. They usually spoof their phone numbers to show up as official phone numbers of the IRS on marks’ Caller ID information display. Doing this increases the chances of having targets answer such calls.
These scammers often subject their targets to undue pressure for immediate payments, usually via wire transfers, gift cards, and cryptocurrencies. They threaten hesitant marks with extreme actions such as arrest, deportation, and license revocation to coerce them into complying with their request. The IRS warns residents to beware of callers purportedly from the agency who request confidential information or apply threats to demand payments over the phone. Residents who receive such calls can contact the IRS to verify such calls. They can also conduct a reverse cell phone lookup on such callers’ phone numbers to ascertain their identities.
What are Banking Scams?
In banking scams, fraudsters pretend to be representatives of targets’ local banks in Martin County to extort them. They inform the targets that their debit card details or other account information have been compromised and offer to resolve the issues. As such, they request confidential information such as account passwords and PINs for supposed tracking of account activities. Residents who disclose such information end up getting scammed. The authorities warn residents to be wary of calls requesting information related to their bank accounts as they are mostly scam calls. To uncover the identities of such callers, residents can use services that offer reverse phone lookups.
What are Robocalls and Spam Calls?
Robocalls are preset messages delivered to mass phone numbers by automated phone calls. They are a communication tool for entities with an extensive database of call recipients, such as telemarketing companies and political campaign organizations. Phone scammers, however, leverage the features of robocalls, especially the prompt feedback system, to defraud unsuspecting targets.
Spam calls are unsolicited calls made to a large number of recipients. They may be genuine or targeted at defrauding the call recipients. Phone number lookup services can help residents differentiate robocalls from live phone calls and prevent them from falling victim to robocall scams. Martin County residents can also take the following decisive actions to avoid illegal robocalls:
- End a phone call as soon as you discover it is a robocall. Decline any instructions by a robocall to connect you to a live operator as doing otherwise will lead to more robocalls and mark you for future scam calls.
- Register your phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry to limit the number of robocalls you receive daily.
- Enlist your number for free on the Florida Do Not Call list provided by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
- Report any phone number you identify as a robocall or spam number to the FTC online. Endeavor to provide the phone number displayed on the caller ID and any other callback phone line to assist the FTC in tracking such callers.
- Use phone number search applications to identify robocalls and spam numbers and block them from calling you in the future using third-party call-blocking applications. Such apps are available on Play Store for Android users and App Store for iOS users.
How Can You Spot and Report Martin County Phone Scams?
Spotting phone scams before being fleeced is the best way to avoid scam-related losses. Several government agencies provide educational resources to guide residents on how to identify phone scams. As such, Martin County residents are advised to educate themselves with these resources and avoid scams. Victims of phone scams in Martin County are encouraged to report their encounters to the relevant agencies for investigations. They can verify the identities of unknown callers using phone lookup applications and decide whether or not to continue speaking with the callers. Common pointers to phone scams in Martin County include:
- The caller requests confidential information. Legitimate organizations understand the need for information security and do not make such requests over the phone.
- The caller tries to get you to cooperate by resorting to the use of threats. The common threats include lawsuits, fines, arrests, and deportation.
- The caller insists on specific payment methods, especially those that make transactions hard to trace. Such channels include gift cards, cryptocurrencies, and wire transfers.
- The caller feigns urgency and requests immediate payments. Do not oblige to such requests as they are mostly scam attempts.
In Martin County, several government institutions are responsible for protecting and educating residents on phone scam-related issues. Some of these institutions are:
Martin County Sheriff’s Office - The Martin County Sheriff protects and educates residents on phone scams. Residents can report phone scam incidents to the Sheriff's Office by calling (772) 220-7000.
Better Business Bureau - The BBB provides an online portal for scam tracking where residents may report cases of phone scams. The portal also has information about registered businesses in the county. This enables residents to confirm the legitimacy of business organizations before making financial commitments.
Federal Trade Commission - The DNC Registry provided by the FTC helps residents whose phone numbers are listed to identify illegal robocalls and avoid scams. The FTC also provides helpful information on how to prevent or control possible cases of phone scams. Phone scam victims can file reports with the FTC online.