Posted on 01/31/2014 6:38:35 AM PST by Second Amendment First
If you receive a call on your cellphone preceded by just one or two rings, chances are it’s part of the new One Ring phone scam spreading across the U.S. faster than a summer wildfire.
Here’s how it works: International scammers have programmed computers to blast out millions of calls to cellphone numbers, ring once or twice, then disconnect. The objective is to make you curious enough to dial that number back.
The “gotcha” happens when you return the call. You’ll be charged $19.95 for the international call fee itself and $9 per minute thereafter. “Oftentimes consumers say they hear music and then advertising, so they think nothing of staying on the phone. It’s easy to see how quickly charges for these international calls can add up," said Shelley Polansky, vice president of communications for Better Business Bureau Serving Northern Colorado and Wyoming
Consumers who have been duped by these calls report calls coming from Dominican Republic (809), Jamaica (876), British Virgin Islands (284), Grenada (473) as well as Minnesota and Canadian area codes.
If you think you’ve are a victim of the One Ring scam, you should immediately alert your phone carrier and keep an eye on your cellphone bill. If you have not already done so, opt out of all third-party billing to your phone.
Debt collectors do this. I still go through cycles where I will get dozens of calls per day from debt collectors looking for people I have never heard of. I have to record the calls and then hopfully get them to violate the law then send it to the state’s attorney general and they stop, for a while.
You can also report them to the FTC. Once you’ve told them the person they’re looking for isn’t at your phone number, they’re required to not call it anymore, even if they don’t break one of the other laws. Reporting to the FTC is easy, online process on their website.
I get that one as well. Oddly, I only started getting these after putting myself on the DoNotCall list.
The worst part was that the guy kept repeating "OH MY GOD" after he would have me do some kind of lookup and describe what I saw.
The Microsoft Authenticode had an expiration date of 1995. OH MY GOD. That means I am not protected OH MY GOD.
(which is complete BS. The Authenticode thing is there for a reason, and is the same on everyone's (windows) computer. I googled it and checked it out. It's there for backwards compatibility.
After about 30-45 minutes, I said, "You aren't even from America", and hung up. I hope it cost them plenty to call me from Pakistan. Three different times, as well.
“Three or four times, piecemeal-ish.”
what should the 4th thing be? :)
‘Will no one rid me of this turbulent bit**?’
If our dear leader were to publicly hang any and all connected to CARD SERVICES; I might vote for him?
I get those from time to time and I listen, then tell them to “wait a moment, somebody is at my front door”. Then I put the phone down and forget about it. I might come back 10 minutes later to see if the idiot is still holding.
On my business cell phone, I’ll call back if it’s a local number. On my personal cell phone, I don’t call anybody back who doesn’t leave a message.
I wonder if you can beat this scam by actually answering the call? You won’t get charged because you didn’t make the call... they will! Hence that’s why it only rings once - to get you to call back. But if you beat them to the punch they get the charges!
If you mess with old people who don't have much to do, no telling what they are going to tell you.
Instead of OH MY GOD, tink I am going to use PRAISE ALLAH.
Yup, I generally don’t answer unknown calls, unless I’m expecting an unknown caller, or I’m really bored. If it’s important, they’ll call back or leave a message (Google voicemail sends me a badly translated text of their message).
Spam calls I save to a contact entitled “Spam” (or “Spam II”, since Spam is full of numbers). So then when they call again offering a free trip or FBI security system, I know I can either leave the call on and waste their time, or actually mess with the caller.
I don’t have any annoying ring/hangups. Nice of you to wish that on someone (me) though. Real classy. (cough cough)
Your non-answer means you don’t have a non-regulatory solution for Silverleaf’s problem. And I didn’t wish anything on you. Nice try at changing the subject.
Don’t think of it as a new regulation. Think of it as a fix to the existing regulation that allows and creates an incentive for this type of abuse.
Your non-answer means you don’t have a non-regulatory solution for Silverleaf’s problem. And I didn’t wish anything on you. Nice try at changing the subject.
Don’t think of it as a new regulation. Think of it as a fix to the existing regulation that allows and creates an incentive for this type of abuse.
Think of it as government interference.
Not scared of that boogey man. Just have to keep it in it's place.
Not scared of that boogey man. Just have to keep it in it's place.
I had a call from 268-762-0133 a week ago. Probably the same outfit.
A special message from zero?
This could be fun and a LOT of dough for the right Pakistani!
Rats, being generally dumber than your average person would be more likely to fall into this trap, and even stay on for a while, if they think they are being given instructions for how to get more benefits, support the dems against "those evil repubs, etc.
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