What are Marin County Area Codes?
According to the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), each Numbering Plan Area has specific area codes assigned to it. Typically, each area has at least one area code. Area codes refer to the set of three numbers that precede every North American telephone number. Being that area codes represent specific locations, individuals can conduct area code lookups using reverse phone lookup services to verify where the calls they receive originate from. The California Public Utility Commission (PUC) is responsible for assigning and maintaining area codes in the state.
Area Code 415
Area code 415 is the area code for the northern suburbs in Marin County across the Golden Gate, the City of San Francisco, and the northeast corner of San Mateo County. It also covers Cities of Belvedere, Corte Madera, Brisbane, Daly City, Larkspur, Mill Valley, Fairfax, Novato, Sausalito, Ross, San Anselmo, San Rafael, Tiburon. It was created as one of the original 86 area codes created by AT&T and the Bell System in 1947.
Area Code 707
Area code 707 was created on January 1, 1959, as a geographical split from the 916 area code. Area code 707 encompasses Coastal Northern California and north from the City of Vallejo to the Oregon border. It also serves the southern portions of area code 707 located in the San Francisco, Santa Rosa, and Vallejo Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA).
Area Code 628
Area code 628 became active on March 21, 2015. It was created as a split from area code 415 and it serves the same territory as area code 415.
Area Code 909
Area code 909 area code was created when it was split from area code 714 in November 1992. It encompasses the southwestern portion of San Bernardino County, the eastern portion of Los Angeles County, and small portions of Orange County.
What Are the Best Cell Phone Plans in Marin County?
In Marin County, Verizon has the best coverage with 96%, compared to other network providers in the county. T-Mobile is next to Verizon with 84% coverage, followed by AT&T with 82%. With 78%, Sprint has the least network coverage compared to the other active network providers in the county. Note that densely populated areas of the county may experience poor phone network quality. Also, bad weather conditions may adversely affect network quality.
The National Center of Health Statistics survey for 2018, shows that an estimate of 55.4% of the California adults aged 18 and above used solely wireless telephones. Contrastingly, the estimate of the California adults that used only landlines was 3.3%. When compared to the survey of minors under the age of 18 in California, 63.5% used only wireless telephone services, while 1.8% of the minors only used landlines. It can be inferred that there is a significant difference in the preference of the California adults and minors for wireless telephone services, compared to landlines.
Currently, VoIP has become widely acceptable in Marin County not only by businesses and residents but also by government agencies. One of such agencies is the Marin County Sheriff, which recognizes VoIP as an acceptable medium of telecommunication. The use of VoIP has significantly increased in Marin County due to its abundant features and cost-saving measures. Some features VoIP calls provide include advanced call management, call analytics, anonymous call rejection, call routing, etc. VoIP, Voice Over Internet Protocol conveys voice and multimedia data between the sender and the recipient using active internet connections.
What Are Marin County Phone Scams?
Marin County phone scams are fraudulent schemes targeted at county residents over the phone. Phone scammers devise dubious ploys aimed at defrauding county residents and stealing their personal or financial information. In Marin County phone scams, advanced telephony services are used to commit grievous atrocities. For instance, some scammers use VoIP for phone spoofing and to impersonate legitimate entities. Scammers also target residents with illegal robocalls to get them to disclose their personal information or pay money for bogus sales offers. The FCC helps combat Caller ID spoofing by providing safety measures and educating residents on how to activate call blocking on their cell phones to restrict callers from phone scammers.
Reverse phone number lookup services help uncover the identities of scammers and block them. Some common phone scams highlighted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) include:
What are Jury Summons/Duty Scams
Jury summons scams are targeted at defrauding businesses in the county. These scammers mostly conceal their phone numbers and copy the Sheriff’s Department’s phone number to make it appear like the calls are from the Sheriff’s Department. When the targets pick up, the scammers ask to confirm that they are speaking with the business owner or the person in charge. They then claim that the recipients missed jury summons and they need to pay certain fines to avoid being sentenced to jail terms. Note that the Sheriff’s Department and the other law enforcement agencies would never demand any form of cash payment over the phone. In other cases, the scammers may request payment via prepaid debit cards, wire transfers, or iTunes gift cards. Usually, these payment methods are difficult to track, and getting a refund may not be possible. Avoid giving out your personal and financial information to persons over the phone and beware of spoofed Caller IDs. Not all calls that appear to be from the Sheriff’s Department are actually from the Sheriff’s Department. If you receive such a call, perform a reverse phone lookup on the phone number that contacted you. An indication that the phone number was spoofed is if you receive no results from the phone number search you conducted.
What are IRS Scams?
This involves scammers impersonating IRS officers and calling residents to demand payment for back taxes. IRS scams occur mostly during tax seasons. These scammers issue threats of deportation or arrest to their targets. The aim is to make the targets act in fear and pay the requested fees for fear of arrest or deportation. Note that the IRS never contacts residents out of the blue without first prompting the calls with emails. They also do not demand payment over the phone. Victims of these calls should hang up and not make any payments over the phone, neither disclose their personal and financial information. Back taxes and other forms of IRS payments should be paid directly to the IRS and not via bitcoins or gift cards.
You can contact the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) to report IRS scams online or call the TIGTA at 1-800-366-4484. You can also use a free reverse phone lookup website or mobile app to perform a phone number search and can identify the person that contacted you.
What are Charity Scams
Charity scams aim at taking advantage of the goodwill of county residents to donate to charitable organizations. These scams are more prevalent after the occurrence of tragic events that involve injuries and the loss of lives and properties. During periods like these, fraudsters masking as charitable organizations begin soliciting for help for affected persons. Some may even fake non-existent charitable organizations and deceive residents with this. County residents are advised to ignore calls from unverifiable sources seeking donations because in the real sense, the donations end up being embezzled. Persons that want to donate can directly contact legitimate charitable organizations and donate directly to them. They can also confirm that the charity is registered by searching the Attorney General’s Registry of Charitable Trusts.
Note that these scammers may duplicate the phone numbers of legitimate organizations and seek donations on their behalf. They may also provide fake evidence to make their schemes believable. If you receive such a call, you can perform a reverse phone lookup free to verify the authenticity of the charitable organization and the caller.
What are Fake Kidnap Scams?
Fake kidnap scams mostly target parents. A typical case of a fake kidnap scam is a scammer contacting a resident and claiming to have their loved one in custody. They may even have a crying person in the background and threaten to harm the target’s supposed loved one if they do not make certain payments. Such scammers usually insist that the targets do not cut off the call until they are able to complete the payment. These scammers usually issue grievous threats, making their targets act in fear. If you find yourself in such a situation, alert someone to call 911 immediately to verify that your loved one is safe.
What are Robocalls and Spam Calls?
Robocalls are automated calls that deliver pre-recorded messages to a wide range of persons. These robocalls may sometimes contain directives for recipients to connect to live representatives to get detailed information on the content of the call. Legitimate robocalls only disseminate vital information. The Federal Trade Commission permits robocalls that are used appropriately and with the recipients' consent. Robocalls that do not require consent include robocalls for debt collection, robocalls from legitimate charities, and political robocalls, and robocalls from legitimate health institutions. Asides from the aforementioned robocalls, other robocalls that do not first seek consent are classified as illegal robocalls. These illegal robocalls aim to steal people’s money or personal and financial information. Spam calls are unwanted calls that are randomly sent for commercial advertisement, proselytizing, and other unacceptable purposes.
Follow these steps to combat Illegal robocalls and spam calls:
- End the call as soon as you identify that it is a robocall. In addition, do not follow any directives given during the calls. Following these directives may lead to more robocalls as some scammers use the directives to identify active numbers.
- Log a complaint on illegal robocalls via the FTC’s online complaint assistant or call 1-888-382-1222.
- Identify and block robocalls with mobile applications or websites that provide reverse phone number lookup.
- Register all your personal phone numbers to the National Do Not Call Registry to restrict robocalls and other unsolicited calls.
How to Spot and Report Marin County Phone Scams?
Typically, phone scammers are manipulative and they constantly devise various means to carry out their schemes without being caught. Marin County residents are advised to be cautious while receiving calls and look out for the following red flags of phone scams. They include:
- Unsolicited calls from unknown phone numbers - Ignore such calls. You can do a phone number search to answer the question “who is this number registered to.” Reverse phone lookup services also allow you to block phone numbers to avoid future calls. You may also contact your phone network service provider to get more call blocking options.
- A caller asking for your personal or financial information - Never give out your personal or financial information to anyone over the phone. Conduct a suspicious phone number lookup to find out who called you.
- A caller claiming to be an employee of a government agency, demanding payment - Government agencies and legitimate businesses do not call residents randomly to demand payment. Use a reverse phone lookup service to identify the imposter and report the case to the law enforcement agency nearest to you.
- A caller insisting on maintaining an anonymous status - Do a suspicious phone number look up to unveil the identity of the caller.
- A caller seeking payment before “prizes or incentives” are given.
Marin County residents can report phone scams to these government agencies:
Marin County Sheriff’s Department - You can report a crime online to the Sheriff’s Office by filing a report. Call 911 in emergency cases.
Marin County District Attorney’s Office - Contact the District Attorney to report scams at (415) 473-6450 or report in-person at:
3501 Civic Center Drive
Suite 145
San Rafael, CA 94903
The office is open Monday to Friday, 8:00 am to 4:00 pm
Department of Justice - Office of the Attorney General - You can file a complaint to report a phone scam.
Federal Communications Commission - Complete the online complaint form to a report scam.
Federal Trade Commission - File a complaint to report scams to the FTC via the online consumer complaint assistant. Residents can register their phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry to restrict unsolicited calls.