Robo Calls

[ThomasPowers]

I'm used to the "your car's warranty is about to expire" calls and our cars both being 17 years old makes them merely amusing. The new ones in Spanish were a switch and good practice; though if they really knew anything about me they might guess that Thomas Powers is not a Mexican name...  Now however I just received a robo call warning me that my "Amazon account has been hacked and an expensive purchase has been made on it and contact them immediately by pressing 1"   of course not having an Amazon account this seems a bit odd.

I'm in IT; I try to do as little online as possible!  IFI is my major online presence outside of work.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

I got the Amazon scam call a few days ago, 

  I listened to what they had to say then I hung up without pushing any buttons, 

I logged into my Amazon account and of course no purchase had been made, so I just ignored it, 

I miss the one I used to get about my social security number being shut down! 
One time I got a live person and i laughed and said okay you can keep it and I’ll just quit paying taxes lol, 

[Randy Griffin]

Oh, if I get a live person they regret ever making that call. 

[rockstar.esq]

I read about a scam where the incoming call sounds like a bad connection where you can only catch bits and phrases.  The caller pretends that they can't hear what you're saying either.  They record your side of the call in hopes of catching you stating your name, and generic words like "yes".

I gather that they use this recording to falsify your acceptance to a subscription service or some such.

[ThomasPowers]

Even giving them the information that it is a live line is a bad idea; though I have answered in German when they are talking to me in Spanish...And beware the "one ring hangups"  when you get a call but they hang up immediately. If you try calling it back you can be forwarded to an international number that charges large amounts per minute.

A couple of years ago; every time I visited my Mother I would go over the fact that while I was working in Mexico, I was inside heavy security and that the Company had a Security group that would be responsible for getting me if something went wrong.   There was a scam going that a gang or even the police had a relation of the callee and needed a lot of money IMMEDIATELY to get them back across the border!   (Yes; we would get quarterly security briefings from Corporate security.)

Just got another "suspicious purchase of MacBook's on my Amazon account".  Now how do I forward their call to a 900 number...

[George N. M.]

I usually don't answer calls from numbers I don't recognize and particularly unfamiliar area codes but if one does get through and it is a live person I usually tell them that their mother must be so proud of their career choices.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Frosty]

I almost never get a scam call on my cell, our phone service has pretty good antimalware. I get them online though, with the COLA increase in social security the scammers are falling out of the woodwork. I don't respond to anything, even emails from folks I asked to contact me occasionally but they put something suspicious in the subject line and it's gone. 

I miss the land line, I loved playing scammers. Most aren't well educated or very bright or they'd have better jobs so I'd keep stringing them along while I searched out their phone # supplied by Caller ID and talk their full name out of them.

A couple of times I was able to back track the personal info I got from them to the point I knew where they lived and even their home phone once. It's really satisfying when a scammer realizes they are the target and I am going to call their mother, paycheck job boss, etc.

Unfortunately we dumped the land line so I don't get to do that anymore. <sniff>

Well, there are a number of web sites and blogs by people who do scammers badly if I want to remember the fun vicariously.

Frosty the Lucky.

[Daswulf]

The sad part is some people Do get fooled. So far there is no real threat to the scammers. I've even heard they can call from local numbers and people call back and it is an innocent person on the other end. 

I get calls on occasion. Seems like they come in waves. I just hang up. If I even answer. If it is important they will leave a message or text me. Im wary to bother answer any call from a # not in my phone but still occassionally do. Far as email... I can tell right away and will delete without clicking any links. 

Sometimes you can look up the "warning" from the company and email or phone call and there are warnings it is a scam. Never just click their links. 

And the Irs, police or other important source will mail you a real letter or more likely a certified or a signature verified letter if it is important.  They don't bother calling or just emailing when you are in hot water. 

If it is odd, too good to be true or suspicious, just don't trust it.  Scammers are everywhere. 

On a side note, I love the videos of people messing with scammers. Lol, No legit big company will have you pay them with gift cards or have you mail cash in any way. 

[George N. M.]

A year so so I was in contact with a scammer who had been advertising a travel trailer on Crxxxxlist.  She was supposedly a soldier in the DC area who was being deployed overseas and had to sell her travel trailer.  She didn't realize that some of the military things she was saying didn't ring true.  When I asked her what unit she was assigned to and who her commanding officer is and that I had a friend in the DC area who could come by and check out the trailer she dropped off the radar PDQ.

I did report the scam listing to Crxxxxlist.

I really do wish that you could send something bad to the scammers.  I guess I'll have to rely on karma.

I do enjoy the videos of porch pirates getting caught by glitter bombs.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

On our land line I never answer calls due to so many robo calls, unless I recognize the number or caller ID is from someone I know. I let them leave a number, my voice mail says "I can't come to the phone right now, leave your name & number and if I want to talk to you I will call you back. If you don't hear from me wellll.

On my cell unless they are in my contacts, same voice mail message and I block most unknown numbers. I don't get many robo calls on it though.

[SLAG]

SLAG   here,

Good evening.

Marg the marvelous and I do not answer calls. We will do so if the said caller leaves a message. Answering calls that have familiar area codes are not a good reason to answer either as those scammers can spoof those area codes.

Repeat callers get blocked quickly.

Few folks leave messages, so we answer very few calls .I wish the good Lord would promptly strike them dead*.

But, no such luck, it just does not happen.

Regards to all,

SLAG.

* a suitable old testament punishment.

 

[LeeJustice]

Don't leave out the text scammers.  Recently I have been getting a lot of supposedly from my cell carrier "Thanks for paying your bill, click for your reward."  NO.  The most recent had the wrong name in it, shabby scam, cannot get my name right.  The other common one are like "You have won a CVS (or any other retailer) gift card, click the link to claim it."  Another big NO.

[JHCC]

13 hours ago, Frosty said:

I miss the land line, I loved playing scammers.

12 hours ago, George N. M. said:

I do enjoy the videos of porch pirates getting caught by glitter bombs.

There's a genre of YouTube videos of people relating how they play scammers, including some where they keep the scammers talking while they track their location and even hack back into their webcams. 

 

[ThomasPowers]

My relatives in Las Cruces received two checks that they had no connection to; they asked me what to do with them.  I backtracked the real company on one and they told me a bunch of checks had been stolen and to trash the one my sister had received.  The other hooked me up with the state's fraud division as it was a State Agency that was being spoofed.

I've given up on how many contests that I haven't entered that I have won.  The scam that toasted my rarebit was the one where they were claiming to be US Military that had looted a place in the middle east and wanted help laundering their theft!

Makes me almost nostalgic for the earlier centuries "pig in a poke scams".    If you hold by Tanstaafl you can usually avoid most scams.  (Of course being surly about putting any of my financial details on the web helps a lot too.)

[Scott NC]

  Not the same thing but along the same lines, my dad passionately hated junk mail so he would swap the contents of one scam letter into the postage paid envelope of another and vice versa, costing both companies money.   He cursed a lot while he was doing it.  I suppose todays robo calls and email scams have their roots in in junk mail and tv scam artists and hucksters.

[ThomasPowers]

Don't forget that the musical "The Music Man" was based on well known confidence tricks.

[JHCC]

Marian Paroo: "I've never met a man who sells anvils before."

Charlie Cowell: "Takes a real salesman, I can tell you that. Anvils have a limited appeal, you know.""

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

I use my cell for business so I end up answering scam calls every now an then between customer calls, 

Sometimes I mess with the scammers but other times I’ll just set the phone in front of the shop radio speakers and walk off

once or twice I may have started up a customers chainsaw and reved it up with the phone set on speaker… 

just in case they were wearing a headset lol 

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

I get the text scams... No Amazon account, rarely shop at the evil empire (WalMart), etc.. Friends hacked FB profiles. Etc... I long for the days when I would run to grab the phone to see who was calling, now  I rarely answer my phone, or just turn the sound off. 

[Frosty]

Ah, that reminds me of the days before computer switch boards. The lines in Anchorage at the time would stay connected as long as the recipient didn't hang up. Sooooo, when I got a telephone solicitor or scammer I'd lay the receiver next to my boom box and go back to what I was doing. The local newspapers were in a pitched battle for subscriptions in relation to a hostile take over and I was getting at least 4-5/hr. from each between 5pm and 10pm. I don't now how many went unanswered while I was at work. Leaving those boys on a line they couldn't close was sweet. Both offices were maybe 3 blocks from where I lived I went in personally and canceled my subscription to the News and as a parting shot mentioned someone in their phone mill had been connected to mine for hours, they might as well send him home. 

They started calling the phone company on another line to have it disconnected but that cost them something like $7 per. 

I think scams and confidence schemes have been with us since we started trading, probably early hominid times paleolithic at least. My folks used to show us kids scam and con scheme letters as kids, they said they were rampant during the great depression. Sad to say my little Sister still gets sucked in occasionally, I got a call from her a couple months ago wanting to sign me up for a travel and lodgings plan. Save bunches and get free "gifts" for everybody we signed up. No thanks Shan, that's a scam, a Ponsy scheme by name.

I like stuffing the self addressed postage paid envelopes with competitor's scam mail but I don't want to bother anymore. There's a handy trash can by our PO box.

All it takes in a couple takers a day to break even for the out of country phone mills and some have a couple hundred on the phone all the time. There are always takers, it's sad but I think there always have been.

Frosty the Lucky.

Frosty the Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

Back when it was real people on the line you could always do the "can't speak now; can you call me back on my other line" and give them the local FBI number...

Now folks are beginning to catch on that packet switching is packet switching and it doesn't matter if it's a phone or a computer as long as you get the headers correct!

[mcostello]

Have any of You ever got one from "The FBI will be at Your door shortly or We could settle this over the phone now"

Heard about the one that starts out Knock on door and "Alcohol, Tobacco, and Fire Arms". The Guy answered because He thought it was a delivery.

One email said " the Girl was outside in My driveway right now waiting". I DID NOT look out the window.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

The ATF joke is hilarious! I’m gonna have to remember that

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I got one that said there was a warrant out for my arrest and there was a deputy en route to serve the warrant, but if I gave them my debit card number & pin he would be called off. I told them he better have a lot of ammo because he will need it, they hung up.

[Frosty]

Oh I got the cop on the way to arrest me call and he hung up when I asked in an incredulous tone, "You only sent ONE?" and started cackling. 

I used to see a bumper sticker that said, "Alcohol, Tobacco and Fire Arms, a great name for a convenience store." 

Frosty the Lucky.