Posted on 05/27/2016 7:17:06 AM PDT by KeyLargo
Phone Scam ‘Onslaught’ Has Authorities Scrambling 5/27/2016
Telephone scammers posing as tech support, lottery reps or even government officials are inundating U.S. homes as cheap technology and the rapid rise in Internet access globally makes it easier to set up ..
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Nope. I imagine they'd send a letter only as a courtesy to let you know they'll be meeting you in person.
Hopefully I never find out.
Just tell them, “Can you hang on for a minute?” and lay the phone down for 1/2 hour. ;-)
The Do Not Call Registry is somewhat useful but not very effective at preventing these types of telephone scam calls.
I purchased a Panasonic phone which I can block any such phone numbers myself.
https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en#q=telephone+phone+call+blocker+reviews&hl=en&tbm=shop
https://consumerist.com/2015/07/28/consumers-put-robocall-blocking-devices-to-the-test/
Come and get me, copper!
The few times I have picked up the phone and one of these AHs is on the line, I listen to their pitch, assuming it is not a robo call, and then say that sounds serious, send over a rep ASAP so I can give them a check. I am still waiting.
To fall for scams like these mentioned, a person must not have much of a grip of reality.
We have a game...
Trying to keep the scammers on line as long as possible. I kept Rebecc from credit card services on the phone for 16:04 minutes one time.
Also keep a stickie of the local FBI agent and office near your phone. When their recording asks for a call back number I gladly give ‘em the FBI.
The Microsoft support was driving my wife crazy and I was not answering the phone until I had enough. I now take please in being an actor. Every time they call I am a different person with a different accent. Sometimes dumb as dirt, other times an old man that cannot hear correctly so I keep asking them to repeat what they said, sometimes a Luddite that has no technology in my home, just something different every time. Went from 3-4 times per day to no calls in the last two weeks.
Say this: Thanks for calling, please give me your credit card number, the cost to speak with us is $500. Sometimes the dummies want to argue but I just say: Sir! your credit card please!
+1
Another line that prompts their immediate disconnect is to let them speak their opening lie, then tell them “This is important. Don’t hang up. Our tracing software takes a minute or two to finish a thorough trace to your actual location. So don’t hang up!”
Best $100 we ever spent:
Some days we get 5-6 and have had as many as 8 scam calls per day. I look the (blocked) numbers up online & can see what kinds of scams they are.
The Digitone call blocker comes from the factory set to accept all calls & you can block the ones you don’t want. We were getting SO many calls, I was running out of room for blocked calls, plus we were getting calls from different states. The call blocker also has a another mode you can switch to ... this mode blocks ALL calls & you “invite” those you want. I have switched our blocker to this mode and it is working well.
You can invite or block calls many ways using # as a ‘wild number’. So you can do it by area code only: 123-###-####, area code and exchange: 123-456-#### or you can block the last two digits (pesky callers changing extension numbers) or be even more specific 123-456-78## or even 123-456-789#.
I have elderly parents & I think they are on every “elder scam” list out there ..... this has given us a quiet house again & greatly reduced the chance that they will talk to someone they should not be talking to.
“I just got a call from a foreign-sounding woman claiming to be part of the “Legal Department of the US Treasury.” She threatened some very ominous legal actions that were going to be taken against me, and ended the call by hoping I have a “blessed day.”
Got the same call. Very ominous and I could see it scaring the hell out of people.
There is a simple and free way to abort 99.999999% of these calls.
Sign up with NoMoreRoboCalls:
If a caller is new and sneaks past NoMoreRobo, I have two ways to handle that number:
1. I answer and tell the scammer to call back in 30 minutes. Then hang up and put that # on call forwarding. The next time they call, they will be forwarded to our local DA office reporting scams.
2. A day later, I add that number to NoMoreRobo as a scam call.
I got one about Microsoft Security.
I said, Oh, Good, I was hacked and lost all my money.
You can get it back for me, right?
. . . . . buzz
I’ve gotten the same call with the same reply and response. Our personal favorite were the calls we got from Jamaica telling us we’ve won the lottery. They’d always ask for my wife by name and were be quite persistent and creative. When we told him we were calling the FBI, he promptly put an “FBI agent” on the line to assure us that the call was on the up and up. They tried at least a dozen times before I convinced them that they’d not see one dime of money from us.
The NSA is too busy listening to your grandma talk to your uncle about the grand kids to give a Shiite about actual scams....
Sites like this one...
...are useful for identifying the source of junk phone calls.
During the height of the primary season, I had identified about 10 numbers that were being used by the Cruz campaign.
I’m getting a lot of calls from the 202 area code (DC) which are sure to be GOP fundraising calls.
[ IRS called and told me I would be arrested if I did not call a phone number and straighten things out.
Rebeca form credit card services calls once a month.
Some guys form India working for Microsoft call regulatory.
The “Police protective association” calls regularly.
The Colorado “No call list” is another scam that does nothing. ]
You too?
Most folks with VoIP can get NoMoRobo https://www.nomorobo.com/
Folks with cell or POTS don’t have that option.
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