“Can you hear me?” phone scam victimising US citizens

A phone scam in the US can victimise people if they respond to  the question "Can you hear me?" with just the word: "Yes."

The Better Business Bureau gives the details on how it works: ''An automated call provides an introduction and identifies a business or agency and after the intro, the prospective victims are asked if they can hear the recording clearly.''

If people answer yes, the scammer behind the call might have recorded them, and could plan to use their affirmation to sign you up for a product or service they never knew about and then demand payment. In case people refuse, the scammer coiuld produce their recorded "yes" response to confirm their purchase agreement.

The BBB advices people to:

• Hang up on any unsolicited robocall. If you are on the federal Do Not Call List and a company calls out of the blue to ask questions, it's likely a scam.
• Avoid responding with "yes," "sure" or "OK."
• Hang up if you're asked to press a button to be placed on the Do Not Call registry. Doing anything else could help scammers identify an active phone number. No government agency will ever solicit for the Do Not Call Registry.
• Write down the phone number and file a scam report with the BBB Scam Tracker and the Federal Trade Commission's Do Not Call List.

Police in Virginia are now warning about the scam, which had also been recently reported in Florida, and, in 2016, in Pennsylvania.

In a variation of the scam, scammers may use the recording to authorise charges on a stolen credit card or with a utility company by tricking an automated system, CBS News reported. The crooks could have already stolen other personal information through a data breach that would allow them to pass the security checks.