[Smokin' Joe]

Maybe y'all already are aware of this one, but remember, the legitimate Publishers Clearing House will try to sell you magazines and stuff, but they won't charge you a dime if you win.

I hate thieves, and the ones offshore can't be prosecuted because they are in a foreign country.

There were other tell-tales in the conversation, which I won't print here (why help them refine their craft?), but which a life-long American would likely pick up on as unusual. Whether or not you hear them, a good serving of skepticism goes a long way...

[AU72]

Never call back or call off a caller-id for a non-US area code. You could get hosed for exorbitant charges.

[Tenacious 1]

About once a year I get a call from the same girl that "Is sorry she missed me she was in town. My free stuff is being shipped anyway." She thanks me for my business and starts in about my purchasing guy and drops some VIP names consistent with my colleagues..... Thing is, I've worked for 4 different companies and she does well to keep up on where I work. I've had the same cell phone number throughout. After about 7 years of this (her name and number are in my speed dial), I finally tricked her into giving me some info that let me track down her "parent company". They have a website and all. But if you look closely at the website you'll start to see the problems. It's "IPC Marketing". I called their "headquarters" in FL and played a little scam of my own. With the names of the folks I talked too, their numbers, and the alleged names of owners and a President, I called the Consumer Protection Agency (3 times). Come to find out, they get away with what they do because businesses use the items they send and then pay for them at exorbitant prices as a result. I guess they are hard to prove criminally. I think it's just our feds being lazy.

I look forward to their next call. Who wants some free stuff? LOL

[SgtHooper]

The winning ticket would be to sic one robo-caller onto another. Any idea how to do this? We get repeated calls from the RNC. Now wouldn’t it be nice to feed their numbers to another telemarketer? Let them figure it out!!

[workerbee]

another one where the caller pretends to be an older grandchild calling for money (please,please,please don't let mom and dad know) and stranded out of town.

This one happened to my parents a year or two ago while one of their grandchildren was living overseas. Almost gave my mother a heart attack but luckily they kept their wits about them and didn't get scammed.

I could cheerfully shoot the people who pull this crap.

[FLAMING DEATH]

I finally got fed up with scammers and started fighting back by wasting their time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxXxAMGRZto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbtp3J3FUps