Livingston Parish Reverse Phone Lookup

What are Livingston Parish Area Codes?

An area code is a three-digit number assigned to a geographical area in the United States. It is added before a seven-digit telephone number when placing a call to or even within an area. An area code can cover the same area as another area code. Such area code is referred to as an area code overlay. You can find the area code for a community or region in the United States by using area code lookup tools online.

There is currently only one area code covering Livingston Parish – Area code 225.

Area Code 225

Area code 225 was created from area code 504 and was first put in service on August 17, 1998. It is the only area code covering Central, Prairieville, and Baton Rouge. Other areas covered by area code 225 include Ascension, Iberville, Livingston, St. James, and Pointe Coupee.

What Are the Best Cell Phone Plans in Livingston Parish?

Wireless telephony service has fast outgrown the use of wired telephony service in Livingston and Louisiana. The sheer number of wireless telephony users in Louisiana has made cell phone plans more common to find. Per a National Center of Health Statistics survey conducted in 2018, among Louisiana residents aged 18 and above, 57.6% exclusively used wireless telephone services, while 4.2% used landline telephone services only. Among persons aged under 18 in the state, 67.8% used wireless telephone services only, while 2.7% used landline services exclusively.

It is very important that you find a dependable wireless provider, especially if you depend on your cell phone for the majority of your communications. Top of your consideration should be finding a service provider with strong coverage in your local area. In the parish seat of Livingston, AT&T has the best overall coverage at 99%. Verizon and T-Mobile are good options with 72% and 65% coverage scores respectively. Sprint's coverage is poorly rated in Livingston Parish.

Livingston Parish residents are not limited to cell phone plans from the four major Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). Smaller prepaid carriers, referred to as Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) typically leverage the infrastructure of the MNOs and resell services to no-commitment customers. Cell phone plans from the MVNOs usually present significant savings each month on phone bills.

More savings on phone bills are also possible by choosing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to make and receive phone calls. By subscribing to a phone plan from a VoIP service provider, you can call regular lines at much cheaper costs compared to the alternatives. With VoIP, same-application users can even communicate with one another with charges only billed for data and not minutes.

What are Livingston Parish Phone Scams?

Livingston phone scams are all nefarious activities of con artists perpetrated using the telephone to fleece unsuspecting Livingston Parish residents. Although the aim is to obtain sensitive information or money from parish residents, many con artists aim to get to the goal using various tricks. One commonly used trick is source credibility, where phone scammers claim to be with reputable companies and use fake or real names and badge numbers. Also, scams now involve fraudsters using caller ID spoofing to alter the source from which their calls are originating to mimic the real phone numbers of legitimate organizations. Reverse phone number lookup services can help identify scam calls.

What are Livingston Parish Law Enforcement Impersonation Scams?

In the law enforcement impersonation scam, Livingston Parish residents are contacted by persons pretending to be from the Sheriff's Office or other law enforcement agencies in the parish. They claim that targets have missed jury duties and are guilty of "contempt of court." The callers even provide fake badge numbers and use the names of actual law enforcement officers to appear more legitimate.

After informing the targets of the “charges”, the scammers inform them that their records can be cleared if they pay fines of various fees. Typically, the fees range between $1,000 and $2,500. The scammers insist that fines must be paid in MoneyPak cards or other prepaid cards, and the victims must provide the cards' serial numbers and mail them and their receipts of specific addresses. You can use a good reverse phone lookup tool online to quickly do a number lookup or reverse number lookup for incoming calls.

What are Livingston Parish Utility Scams?

Utility scams are usually perpetrated by persons claiming to represent energy organizations. However, other utility service providers such as water, gas, and even cable tv companies can be misrepresented. Such impersonators say that targets owe money on their electric bills and threaten to disconnect services if the bills are not paid immediately. The scammers tell targets to purchase Green Dot or similar cash cards and call back on specific numbers to provide the information on the cash cards to pay their "debts."

Note that reputable utility companies do not ask customers to pay immediately by cash cards or credit card information. You can use good reverse phone lookup tools online to quickly do a number lookup or reverse number lookup.

What are Livingston Parish IRS Scams?

Tax season can be stressful for a lot of Livingston Parish residents with fraudsters all too happy to take advantage of the period in defrauding residents. The IRS scam is one of the most common types of phone scam involving callers claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service and threatening residents over supposed debts.

These phony IRS agents call and demand money from victims stating that back taxes are owed to the IRS and must be paid immediately. They threaten arrests, deportation, and revocation of business and driver's licenses if parish residents do not cooperate. Payments are typically requested by iTunes gift cards, money orders, wire transfers, and prepaid debit cards. Many such calls do not even come from residents in the United States. Scam IRS calls are often traced to come from outside the United States.

You may conduct a “reverse phone lookup international” search online to verify the source of such calls. A “reverse phone lookup USA” search will help track the origin of a call placed within the United States.

What are Livingston Parish Fake Check Scams?

The fake check scam may take many forms but usually involves someone calling you and asking you to deposit a check, sometimes for several thousand dollars, and send the money to another person. The callers always have elaborate stories to explain why targets cannot keep all the money. Some may say targets need to cover taxes or fees, others will say targets need to buy supplies or something else. Fake checks may look like business or personal checks, cashier's checks, money orders, or checks delivered electronically. These checks can even look real to bank employees.

By law, banks are instructed to make deposited funds available as soon as possible, typically within two days. When the funds are made available in your account, the bank may say the check has "cleared", but that does not mean it is a good check. Counterfeit checks may take a few weeks to be discovered. By then, scammers have the money sent while victims are stuck paying the money back to the banks. When contacted by suspicious-looking calls, you can free reverse phone number lookup tools online to uncover who called and find who a number is registered to.

What are Robocalls and Spam Calls?

Robocalls are automated phone calls used to deliver pre recorded messages. When you answer a phone call and you hear a robot or recorded message instead of a live person speaking, you have been contacted by a robocall. Robocalls are used by telemarketers in marketing their products, charities in seeking donations, and political campaigners.

Robocalls are cheap and easy to make and can help users reach millions of individuals daily at relatively low costs. As a result, many legitimate organizations and crooked individuals now reach large audiences with pitches of products and services and even fraudulent information. The unsolicited and unwanted nature of these types of calls makes them spam calls.

In 2020, Louisiana residents received over 1.1 billion robocalls. Between January and April 2021, these residents received more than 460 million robocalls, an average of 130 robocalls per resident.

Reverse phone number lookup can help residents identify robocalls and stop scammers in their tracks. You can also limit your exposure to the fraudulent acts of scammers through robocalls by following these guidelines:

• Hang up on robocalls. If you answer a call and hear a prerecorded message, hang up immediately. Do not press any button or number. That could lead to you receiving more calls from scammers.
• Avoid answering calls from unknown numbers.
• Do not provide or confirm personal or financial information to anyone over the phone, as the request may be fraudulent.
• Request your phone provider to block numbers associated with robocalls. Some of them provide services that can help conduct a suspicious phone number lookup or reverse phone lookup.
• Download and install a third-party call-blocking application on your mobile phone, such as Nomorobo, Truecaller, Hiya, and YouMail.
• Report robocalls online to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or call 1 (888) 382-1222.
• Add your phone number to the National Do Not Call Registry maintained by the FTC. Registration is free and can be done by calling 888-382-1222 from the number you intend to register or online.

How to Spot and Report Livingston Parish Phone Scams?

Livingston Parish residents lose huge amounts of money to phone scams each year. Although many residents know to beware of offers that sound too good to be true, it is sometimes difficult to tell which offers are truly good and which are bad deals in disguise. The best way to shield yourself from phone scams is to be aware of the tricks phone scammers use and learn to recognize red flags so you can avoid being conned.

Tools such as reverse phone number lookup services are effective in identifying potential phone scams. The following are pointers to identify possible phone scams:

• The caller asks for payment through wire transfers or gift cards: Do not provide numbers from a prepaid debit or gift card to anyone over the phone without verifying the identity of the caller and the validity of the requests. Scammers prefer these methods because their identities can remain protected.
• The caller asks for your personal or financial information: Do not provide information such as date of birth, Social Security number, bank account information, and home addresses to someone over the phone. Scammers can use this information to commit fraud.
• The caller wants you to send an upfront fee to receive a prize, grant, or winnings: Never send money to pay taxes, shipping, or processing fees to collect your "free prize". If you actually won a prize, it should be free of any form of payment.
• The caller threatens or intimidates you: Representatives of reputable organizations do not threaten or intimidate call recipients to get them to cooperate. If a caller claims to represent a reputable organization but says you will be arrested, jailed, deported, or have your license revoked, chances are that you are on the call to a scammer.

You can file complaints in Livingston Parish with any of the following public bodies if you have been contacted by a scammer:

• The Office of the Attorney General: The Public Protection Division of the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office encourages residents to report frauds and scams to its office. Complaints can be made by telephone or fax. The office’s fax line is (225) 326-6499. The phone contact is (800) 351-4889. The complaint form is available on the Attorney General’s website.
• The Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office: Livingston Parish residents can report phone scams, especially scams related to identity theft to the parish's Sheriff's Office immediately by calling (225) 686-2241.
• Local Police Departments: Residents of New Livingston Parish can also file scam complaints at the various local police departments. In Livingston, you can contact the Livingston Police Department at (225) 686-7153. In Denham Springs, you can contact the Denham Springs Police Department at (225) 665-5106.
• Federal Trade Commission - The FTC seeks to promote competition and to protect and educate consumers. You can learn more about consumer topics and report scams, fraud, and bad business practices online. The FTC created the National Do Not Call Registry as part of its efforts to stop unwanted calls. If you still receive unsolicited calls 31 days after adding your number to the registry, they are likely to be spam calls.
• Federal Communications Commission (FCC) - The FCC educates phone users on how to avoid unwanted robocalls and phone scams through its website. Victims of any of these offenses can file complaints online with the FCC.
• The United States Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TITGA): If you have been contacted by an IRS scammer, contact TITGA by calling the office at (800) 366-4484.