Posted on 12/30/2018 10:23:19 AM PST by P.O.E.
I've tried telling her to no avail not to give out information over the phone but she can't help it and keeps saying things which might not be useful to the scammers in this call but can be used later.
The key is to make the caller give YOU specifics: what's your sister's name, where do you live, what's my maiden name, how old's dad and whatever the real person only would know.
I’ve “shot blanks” for years, so I know I’m the end of the bbloodline.
I talked to a lady several years ago who got one of these calls. Grandson, in jail in Mexico, needed $1200 to get out.
She said it sounded a little like her grandson, but something wasn’t right, and she couldn’t think why her grandson would be in Mexico.
So she finally said, “Well, sweetie, we just don’t have the money to send you, but we’ll pray for you!”
There are several variations on this call. One is a relative in Mexico wanting to come visit but needing money. The lady who got this call doesn’t drive and asked her neighbor to take her to the bank. The neighbor found the request odd and asked questions; she was astute enough to know what was happening and stopped the intended victim from losing any money.
Another is a relative on the way for a visit, involved in an accident and needing money to keep out of jail. One man got this one; the young man called him “Uncle Joe”, his name. Since the man was known to his family by his nickname, he knew this was a fraud (he thought his nephews probably would be hard-pressed to remember his real name!) His nickname was not a “guessable” one.
Frauds and scams are something everyone with older relatives, friends, and neighbors should try to have a conversation about. I hate these scammers with a passion- they prey on the vulnerable.
Who doesn’t recognize their grandkid’s voice?
Hey, kiddo, you messed up. It’s not my responsibility to save your adult butt. Call your daddy.
Hubby gets his jollies messing with scammers. Keeps them on the phone as long as possible.
I got a variant on that call. I got an e-mail from a real friend saying they were robbed in London and needed cash to pay the hotel bill. Only Problem—I had just talked to my friend who was still very much stateside.
I take the same perverse pleasure in messing with their heads when I have the time. My wife doesn't understand why I just don't hang up on them.
My main technique is to at first appear earnest and open to what they have to say. Just when they think they have me on the hook, I start to get really off the wall.
Over the summer I got one of those IRS scammers who left me a voicemail saying there was going to be a warrant for my arrest. I quickly called back and got into a long conversation on how I wanted to make things right and settle up my IRS bill. At one point, I started making my voice crack like I was going to cry and started talking about how I had planned to use the money (that I didn't pay the IRS) to have a sex change operation and that this was going to set me back. I told him that I would also lose my apartment and asked him that if I paid the money if I could come over to his house and be his live-in "girlfriend" for a while so that I could practice at being the girl that I wanted to be. I actually started freaking this guy out and HE hung up on me!
That's always my ultimate goal - to make them hang up on me.
“”Didn’t work for them. I have NO KIDS.””
That would work...or how about my grandson (granddaughter) is only 2 years old?
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
My grandkids have very unusual names for me and my husband. They refer to us as their Grandmother and Grandfather when talking to others but never when speaking to us. If I ever got a phone call and someone called me Grandma I’d know it was a scam.
Years ago, one sent me a dollar and a letter of apology for upsetting me so much.
Some freak called me years ago offering to provide oral sex. At first, I thought it was a friend of mine pranking me, so I told him to come on over. He asked my address and I told him he knew my address and to hurry before I left the house. By now, I knew I had one sick puppy on the phone. It would have taken at heart of stone not to laugh out loud at the kid’s frustration.
I got a call like this; when they said *This is your grandson....*
I thought [albeit, my thinking is a tad slow these daze]
Said to self: *Wait, I don’t have a grandson, I only have grand daughters*.
Thankfully my brain worked in time. I played them along:
*How is your weather?*
*Are you having a nice time*; *How are the beaches?* ...yada.
This is a wonderful story!!
I told a scammer that I would send a money order to Western Union, Istamboul, and that I was heading out the door now to go to Wal-Mart right now. He had asked for fifty but I told him, being stranded in Istambul he would certainly need much more than fifty and I offered 500. He wold call every two hours and I would tell him how terrible traffic was, how I had to stop at the store, how I had a flat tire, how the car radiator overheated, and the beat goes on...
Then there was the I sent it...you better check...they are probably holding back on you...calls, they finally went away.
I love it! You kept that scammer occupied all afternoon and saved a lot of other people that day from some aggravation. Nice touch telling him you’d send $500 instead of the $50. He was probably thinking he really hooked a whale.
Here’s a really well done email scam I got a week or so ago. It looks like your bank, saying “we’ve closed your account as per your request. Any questions contact us’ and has a link. The link goes to a very realistic “site” that looks like the bank site and you are supposed to log in. Riiiiight. Also on the scam notice they say that your online banking site will no longer function for you.
I immediately went to my bank’s online app and it worked fine and my accounts were untouched and working. But I bet such a scam would work on busy people.
We know all our grandchildren......
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