Funny Phone Call Scam Attempt

[Bat-mite]

Here's a good one to try:

"Hello, this is the IRS calling to tell you you owe us $5000 in taxes."

"How can I owe you back taxes? I'm an invalid and I haven't had a job since 1952...."

 

[Ravenex]

I love "this is Visa Master Card we can lower your rates". Those are two separate rival companies...

 

[Marc_G]

My bigger beef is that as someone who pays for my phone service, I still can't "opt out" of things like charity calls, political calls, marketing survey calls. I'm not talking about scammers who are breaking the law (which are nearly impossible to stop), but bona fide organizations that play by the rules, that I happen to have no interest in interacting with. Phone companies "should" provide the option to opt out of all of these types of calls. It bugs me that the do not call list only applies to commercial calls.

 

[grouch]

I always ask them to hang on while I get dinner out of the oven. I out the phone down next to the TV and walk away. They will hold on for a bit before they get tired of listening to Hogans Heros. Schultz may no nothing but the scammer learns real fast.

 

[Andrew_ASC]

Well for a canvasser job where politics is exempt from robocall regulations for free voter surveys I will tell the best way to defeat a robocall is to password protect the voicemail with a numerical code that the caller must enter. The robocaller can’t use the key pad of numbers during an auto dial if selecting from a list phone bank of numbers. We gave out free yard signs to happy decided voters and never asked for money ever.

The biggest clue on IRS scams is a call. The second clue is they want money or info. One from the Bronx wanted me to go to a court date as a voicemail and I cracked up laughing. And I just let it ring. The IRS generally asks for tax documents and employers from my experience wanted info on a W-9 to send to IRS.

The best thing you can do is report the scam calls to the IRS and the FCC. If you really wanted, let the fraudsters show up and have real government law enforcement agencies with you to arrest them for impersonating a federal agency. But stranger crooks may be dangerous to be around.

 

[Andrew_ASC]

My bigger beef is that as someone who pays for my phone service, I still can't "opt out" of things like charity calls, political calls, marketing survey calls. I'm not talking about scammers who are breaking the law (which are nearly impossible to stop), but bona fide organizations that play by the rules, that I happen to have no interest in interacting with. Phone companies "should" provide the option to opt out of all of these types of calls. It bugs me that the do not call list only applies to commercial calls.

Get a security company to password protect it. That would stop legit official organized (I’ve only done political) approved robocalls leaving voicemail or otherwise. I heard a line automated that says this number is protected by RobCo security to prove your not a robocall enter a code. Any landline that demanded a security code or number entry could not be bothered. You could autodial that number from a phone bank but without authorization via a numerical code entry the call would not complete to voicemail. It was a limitation of Astra6757i telemarketing crap we used. You couldn’t enter a security code number from the phone number being auto dialed even when the phone number prompted enter *67 or whatever. The telemarketing phones had to have a sequence of commands to even dial a number manually which removes the entire auto dial list and during an auto dial to manually enter a number it would cancel call. That trick won’t stop any jerk manually dialing your number. I know that being the Schmuck college student working for $4 an hour on the other end of a line to pay for books as a university political campaign contract thing.

The other crap telemarketers hate is the high pitch squeal or squelch. Number disconnect noises. They will Mark bad number and move on. Same with pure silence we optioned that as dead air. If you played the number disconnected thing you would stop a lot of it.

Not trying to be jerk or snark off topic only to help you. I enjoyed face to face surveys more than cold calls. Though people sometimes would lose it and respond I don’t have a number from one to five. Plus in person if they were obviously busy you would see that and avoid bothering them. And people were nicer in return when you respected them as busy people too.

But on a phone these commercial and campaigns they can’t see that.

 

[chrisudy]

I have been getting these many times. For Revenue Canada and Blue Cross.

How did you find which provider they were using?

The first number they called from had been disconnected and was playing a MagicJack ad.

Chris

 

[rocketsaway]

Wasting their time is not enough. Scamming them out of money is better. I read how to do this several yrs ago, so I gave it try.
I sell alot on CL, and the scam has to be about mailing your bank ck to movers. My item was big, heavy and $300. He said is interested and would send $1000. $500 for movers, I keep the rest. When the ck is cashed, send $500 to the movers address. So I agreed. A ck arrived about a day later for $1000, via next day FEDEX. He asked if I cashed the ck yet. I delayed answering for a day or 2. I told him that now I would have to pay more taxes as this $1000 would take me into the next tax bracket. So I need an additional $100 to cover taxes. A day so later, via next day FEDEX another ck-$100. I keep delaying return emails w/ excuses with alot of cryptic mumbo jumbo. Later he caught on and sent nasty emails that went right to spam. I figured he was scammed for at least $50-$60 paying for One Day Express FEDEX.

 

[snrkl]

I got a dozen calls (each from a different local cell phone number) yesterday where I either got a recorded message in Chinese or a person speaking Chinese to me.

I didn’t want to send them to voicemail as it just means they get my name and employment details (it’s a work phone) so I was answering and hanging up.

The calls just kept coming.

Only solution that worked was to answer the call and just let it sit there on mute. I Unmuted and just said: “if you’re going to waste my time, I’m going to waste yours...”

They realised I was a time sink and the calls stopped after that.

 

[Frederocket]

I get the IRS, credit card, political pollster, and occasional missed juror duty calls. Sometimes I play them along, eventually I turn the subject to their mother or wife and there relationship with barnyard animals, which usually takes several min of conversation to develop. That usually results in some salty responses and I respond by sort of apologizing for my sense of humor, but by then they are so wound up, they hang up or threaten me with legal action, which then results in more discussion about their mothers association with pigs, etc.

Recently, I purchased a CPR call blocker, V5000. When a call comes in and you don't recognize the number, you just press the big red "Block Now" button. The unit comes with 5000 known Scam numbers already programed into the unit. The unit seems to be working, as the number of call have diminished on our house phone and those I catch before my phone goes to voice mail are added to the blocked call list with one push of the big red button. To insure I get a chance to hit the button, I programed the phone to its max of eight rings before going to voice mail.

https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&k...d=kwd-313151847048&ref=pd_sl_281vzxsfoa_e_p38

 

[Marc_G]

Hold it!

You mean all those calls I'm getting aren't actually from the IRS, MicroSoft, and the Sweepstakes company after all? They are lying to me?

(Clutches pearls)

 

[Viperfixr]

Just had a friend at work yesterday whose daughter was victim of a "we just kidnapped your daughter" scam. Turns out his daughter did have a grand-daughter that was actually in Istanbul at that time, and was not answering the phone--seemed plausible. They lost $500 via Western Union to find out later that the co-called kidnapped grand-daughter was on the jet home and could not answer her cell. Perfect timing, actually sounded like the grand-daughter on the phone (obviously not), very realistic scam. Law enforcement later traced the phone number to a burner cell in Mexico. Said it was the worst five hours of his life, and this from a guy who piloted an F-111 over Libya in ELDORADO CANYON.

Evil scumbags are out there.

 

[Bat-mite]

Wow. That is crazy. I remember how horrible it felt when we lost our daughter at a county fair. We found her five minutes later, but I swear, for those five minutes I felt like my body was alternating between constricting and exploding. Awful.

 

[K'Tesh]

I have various code words with my family that we have to ensure that doesn't happen while I'm out of the country.

 

[vcp]

Just went twenty minutes with someone who was going to 'fix my computer'. Took five minutes just to find the 'windows' key (it's 'start' on my keyboard). Fun reading back the instructions phonetically: 'www' becomes 'w' as it whitewash, 'w' as in wherewithall, and 'w' as in write, etc. Fun with misspellings. Had to open the 'run' window at least six times. Sometimes I am just so dumb.

 

[vcp]

Had a fun one today. They said I had a free $5000 government grant coming - they just wanted my credit card number so they could deposit it. I told them to put it on a WalMart gift card and mail it to me. They said they couldn't mail it to me and I told them sure they could... and proceeded to ramble on about how to address an envelope [you guys must have my address], put a stamp on it and put it in the outgoing mail. I continued to tell them that since it was a government agency, they probably didn't even need a stamp, etc, ect, until they hung up. Fun.

 

[Bat-mite]

If I get the Indian IRS scammers, I plan to ask them why the IRS is only hiring Indian immigrants these days, because every time the IRS calls, it is an Indian immigrant. Even when they put me on with a manager, it is an Indian immigrant. And when my brother-in-law went to the IRS looking for a job, they said they weren't hiring.

 

[soopirV]

There are a bunch of great YouTube videos of very dedicated anti-scammers going to great lengths (sometimes painfully so) to waste these guys' time. One I remember involved Target Gift Cards as payment for back taxes (who seriously falls for this??), and the "victim" played along, acting/sounding very nervous as he continually mis-read the digits from the backs of non-existant gift cards. The scammer started to lose patience after the 10th or 12th try, but before that, you could tell he thought he had a real big fish on the hook.

 

[vcp]

Had one today that was only a few minutes but very satisfying. They opened up with: "We have information that someone in your family is having problems with hearing loss..." Of course, they were simply shotgunning, but I immediately started asking where they got this information. Pointing out that this was a probable HIPAA violation, etc. They hung up pretty quickly.

Also had a guy at the door today. He was with a company called Blue Raven, that sells solar installations. I have no idea how good they are as far as their services, and I'll probably never know. Even though he's probably the third BR guy at my door, none have had the city-issued solicitor's ID card that is the very first thing they are required to present. When asked, they show their company ID and how the company is "registered with the city" which is all lies - they have to have the city ID. When they start lying about it they are shown the street in a big hurry.

 

[Bat-mite]

I had a young man and woman come to my door, stating that BGE (our electric co.) was about to raise rate, but if I show them my BGE bill, they could lock me in for a lower rate. I asked why they needed to see my bill. They said because they needed to see a certain code that was on the bill. I asked, where is the code located on the bill? I'll find it and write it down. No, no, we just need to see the bill.

I said that I would do a little research, and they could come back later to follow up. I Googled, and found that these alternate providers will switch you over to their company without telling you, and to do that, they need your account number and last bill amount.

They never came back.

 

[mrichhcirm]

I had a young man and woman come to my door, stating that BGE (our electric co.) was about to raise rate, but if I show them my BGE bill, they could lock me in for a lower rate. I asked why they needed to see my bill. They said because they needed to see a certain code that was on the bill. . . . I Googled, and found that these alternate providers will switch you over to their company without telling you, and to do that, they need your account number and last bill amount. . . .

Thanks for looking that up. I had a similar discussion on my porch a couple of years back and I refused to show them a bill...it just didn't feel right, and I told them so. Now I understand that my instincts were right and probably saved myself some aggravation.

 

[dhbarr]

Brand new one, and pretty good -- myself, wife, mother, father all got calls the same day purporting to be process service for some vague west coast company. Couple issues, though:

- that's not how process service works
- I've lived in the same town for a long time
- not hard to find if you actually need to hand me papers
- calling my wife asking for my mother
- calling from "restricted" and leaving an 855 callback number
- leaving one reference number on my voicemail, a different one on my dad's

Honestly though, I was impressed. Way more effort than your standard robocall.