Posted on 05/23/2014 4:27:59 PM PDT by Allen In Texas Hill Country
We stopped answering unknown phone calls a long long time ago. But I was outside and the wife, expecting a call, did answer the call. Trying to make a long story short.....
It was from a family member whom we care enough about that we would do almost anything for. The wife was convinced it was from this family member and when she told me she convinced me too. A few phone calls later involving public attorneys and lawyers we were told to send a very large sum of CASH using UPS.
And then,,,, FINALLY,,, I realized this was a scam. But the knowledge about the details of our particular family structure (a bit different) scares the hell out of us. We called the sheriffs office and gave them the details of the phone numbers used in the scam. The main one of which came from Montreal, Quebec. I did the reverse search after realizing.
Just posting to help others.
“When I pick up my home phone, I answer quickly. If I do not get a reply within one second, I hang up. That pretty much traps out the phone bank marketers.”
That used to work, combined with hitting the # button furiously during the short gap (messed up their digital database to show a nonworking number or something). Now, the very instant I pick up, it’s Bridget or Carla from Credit Card Services or some such thing. Pisses me off to no end. My mother is having serious health issues out of state and the family communites via landline phone. These harassing calls throw off your mental balance for a moment.
And the National Do Not Call List is a joke. Does it even still exist?
Down here in laid back Georgia (ha ha) probably my phone company’s interconnections (NOT AT&T) things move a little slower, and I’m thankful for it.
I still have an old device that connects to the line that gives that special tone that indicates the number is out of service, etc. that will put most any computer generated call into the next dial number.
I used it at my other house but haven’t gotten around to putting on my phone yet to see if it still works.
I hear ya. My son-in-law had been renting his old house to his half-brother. He sold it to him and closing was yesterday after all kinds of machinations to punch all the mortgage items.
His half brother called him last night an said “that lawn service company hasn’t been around here in a bit, can you call them?” He still thought my SIL was gonna pay the lawn service bill (that he HAD to start because his HB let it get to the point that the HOA sent them a letter).
Sometimes relatives are just that - related - but not ‘relevant’ in terms of what matters in one’s life.
“Sometimes relatives are just that - related - but not relevant in terms of what matters in ones life.”
We became educated in that concept after the 2008 election. We dropped some relatives like hot potatoes. (Actually, I like hot potatoes. Obama-voting relatives... not so much.)
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