Reason why you should never answer if someone asks 'can you hear me' on the phone

There's a scary reason why you should hang the phone up to an unknown individual who asks 'can you hear me' on a call.

When it comes to an unknown number calling you it can be pretty easy to just ignore it and carry out with your day.

However, your curiosity can sometimes get the better of you and picking up the phone is what you end up doing.

But it's important to be aware of when a scammer may be trying to take your money, and there are some pretty obvious signs to look out for her.

If someone is asking for your banking details over the phone, then that should be a considered a red flag, while texts pretending to be from a delivery service or a phishing email are also common.

These scammers can be smart however and may be using other means to scam you.

There are many red flags to look out for (Getty Stock Photo)

Millions of Americans have fallen victim to phone scammers using AI looking to steal their money and identities, First Orion warns.

Adam Gordon, an instructor at ITProTV who also provides IT training, says all phone scams are 'designed to do two things: gain information about you that can be used to impersonate you [through] identity theft, and get you to give money to the scammer'.

And one particular phone scam sees a recorded voice ask: "Can you hear hear me?"

But what's so bad about that? I hear you say.

Well, the phrase is designed to trick the victim into saying 'yes'.

"This phone scam is particularly frightening [because] they simply rely on the human behavior of answering a quick question,” says Matthew Shirley, director of offensive cybersecurity operations at Fortalice.

Scam calls are apparently on the rise (Getty Stock Photo)

From there, scammers could use the recording of you saying 'yes' to pretend to be you to make purchases and access more information.

The FTC has explained some of the red flags to loo out for when it comes to phone scams.

They explain: "When people don’t pick up, the callers leave messages saying the imaginary 'loan application is on hold because the business needs more information, so please call back'.

"The calls seem urgent — and they’re persistent. People report getting calls in bursts of anywhere from five to even 20 a day, all from different numbers, all with the same story. But there never was a loan application. It’s a tactic that some dishonest companies are using to offer loans."