What do you do when a scam operation calls you?

[SectorZ]

This week I've gotten two robocall voicemails, both from numbers purporting to be in Idaho, regarding some sort of a subscription renewal (it doesn't say to what): "$349.99 is going to be charged from your checking account or plastic card which is attached in our system for the auto renewal of your subscription."

"Plastic card"? Seriously? How stupid do you have to be to fall for this garbage?

Plastic card is a British/Commonwealth country term for a credit card (though I don't believe Canada or Australia use the term). You can take your guess on what former British colony is doing it.

[zachary_amaryllis]

This week I've gotten two robocall voicemails, both from numbers purporting to be in Idaho, regarding some sort of a subscription renewal (it doesn't say to what): "$349.99 is going to be charged from your checking account or plastic card which is attached in our system for the auto renewal of your subscription."

"Plastic card"? Seriously? How stupid do you have to be to fall for this garbage?

i too have gotten these, which is a neat trick since i possess no plastic cards...

[NWI_Irish96]

This week I've gotten two robocall voicemails, both from numbers purporting to be in Idaho, regarding some sort of a subscription renewal (it doesn't say to what): "$349.99 is going to be charged from your checking account or plastic card which is attached in our system for the auto renewal of your subscription."

"Plastic card"? Seriously? How stupid do you have to be to fall for this garbage?

My AMEX is actually metal and not plastic.

[1995hoo]

The only time I've heard someone use the term "plastic card" was my father. It was back in the 1970s; I was with him at the Erol's on Columbia Pike in Arlington when he went to buy our first color TV. As a little kid, I thought the amount of money was enormous and I asked him how he was ever going to pay for it. He replied, "I'm going to use my plastic card," and he gave the clerk what I later learned was a credit card. But as a little kid, I was further flabbergasted when the clerk handed the card back: "Why did he give you your money back? Aren't we getting the TV?" 

[index]

Remember those debt collectors? I started answering the calls again except this time instead of feeding them fake info, I started to tell absurd, extremely graphic stories about how I was abducted by aliens or chased by an axe-murdering clone of Obama. After the third time I did it they stopped calling me.

[kphoger]

Had a guy call me the other day from Medicare (supposedly from a Wichita-area cell phone ).  He asked me how much I weigh.  I said it depends on whether he meant before or after pooping.  He didn't quite catch that, so I had to repeat it more clearly.  Then he said let's go with before.  Oh, in that case, quite a lot, then!  He hung up.

Lame.

[kphoger]

You know, as soon as I hear the words "Social Security", I hang up the phone because I know it's a scam.  Which makes me wonder...

Several years ago, my dad received a call from INS because an illegal immigrant in California had made up a phony SSN and it happened to be my dad's SSN.  If I were to get such a phone call today, would I hang up on the officer, thinking he was just a scammer?

[Scott5114]

You know, as soon as I hear the words "Social Security", I hang up the phone because I know it's a scam.  Which makes me wonder...

Idea for toying with them: pretend that "social security" has something to do with "social anxiety". As in, you believe "social security" is the state of being secure in your social skills.

[kphoger]

Apparently, it isn't against the law to talk dirty to a telemarketer.

https://www.shouselaw.com/ca/faqs/can-i-be-sued-for-talking-dirty-to-a-telemarketer/

Hmmmmmm......  This may call for some creativity......

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Today I got a scammer's text about a falsified fraudulent charge to my credit card with a phone number to call (likely someone on the other end with the goal to get you to read back your card information to the scammers). Those are the ones that will get people because of emotion and fear that they need to act quickly to reverse the fraud.

[DenverBrian]

If any relative or friend is trying to get hold of me, it'll display their name as the phone's ringing. If it's any other name I don't recognize, or "unknown," or just a number displayed...then off to voice mail it goes. If the VM indicates a scam, then I block that number.

These days I might get one scam phone call a week.

[thenetwork]

It's bad enough getting telemarketing/scam calls, but getting 3 calls "en Espanol"???  I barely learned enough Spanish in High School to pass my Spanish classes.

I use an old line from a Steve Martin skit on El Scammo callers de las Espanol:

"DONDE ESTA CASA DE PE PE???"

[SSOWorld]

I ghost all incoming calls that do not identify in my Contacts list.

---

You don't ghost Nick Fury



Yes, I do - because it could be Talos.

[kphoger]

It's bad enough getting telemarketing/scam calls, but getting 3 calls "en Espanol"???  I barely learned enough Spanish in High School to pass my Spanish classes.

I use an old line from a Steve Martin skit on El Scammo callers de las Espanol:

"DONDE ESTA CASA DE PE PE???"

I got one once, from a downtown Chicago area code, in what sounded like Japanese.  At least I assume it was a scam.  Who really knows?

[Big John]

^^ Scammers frequently forge their phone number.

[US71]

^^ Scammers frequently forge their phone number.

I've received calls from my phone number.

Scammers I usually just hang up or don't answer, though I've been known to do my Voyager EMH imitation (Please state the nature of he medical emergency).

[kphoger]

^^ Scammers frequently forge their phone number.

– Where are you located?
– Miami, Florida.
– Really?  Your caller ID came up as being in New York.
– I have a New York cell phone, but I live in Miami.
– No, it came up as a landline number in New York, not a cell phone.
– Well, I don't know why, because I'm here in Miami, Florida.
– What's the weather like there today?
– Oh, it's great.  Warm.
– So, I'm still confused:  why does your phone number come up as a land line in New York state?

  ~ or ~

– Where are you located?
– Los Angles, California.
– Then why does your caller ID come up as a Kansas cell phone?
– Sometimes our calls display local phone numbers, because a lot of people don't answer out-of-state numbers.
– A legitimate operation wouldn't spoof their phone number when calling.

[abefroman329]

Send it to voicemail, give thanks that I wasn't born into a situation where doing this for a living was an appealing option.

[kphoger]

Send it to voicemail, give thanks that I wasn't born into a situation where doing this for a living was an appealing option.

...or were led to believe you were hiring on for a legitimate call center job, only to find out later it's a criminal operation but you can't afford to leave.

[roadman65]

Oh I like the one where some guy with very broken English dialect calls your home and says " I'm here to talk to you about your computer"  usually when your on the device. So you get scared as you don't know if this guy is hacked in to your pc, or if it's bad luck of the draw, or if he is a stupid person (dim witted that is  I am not referring to the trade of over the phone sales here) who is working for a telemarketer and just appears to be a crook.

This person reached a coworker of mine at my former job as well. So he might of been just a telemarketer using scare tactics to get you to buy.   Then again he could be shady as well.

I just hang up on the creep.  So far I haven't heard from him in years since I moved, so a blessing there.

[abefroman329]

Send it to voicemail, give thanks that I wasn't born into a situation where doing this for a living was an appealing option.

...or were led to believe you were hiring on for a legitimate call center job, only to find out later it's a criminal operation but you can't afford to leave.

Yes, that too.

[NWI_Irish96]

^^ Scammers frequently forge their phone number.

Yes, but the odds that they forge a number in my contacts list is pretty rare. My contacts are all in one of a handful of groups, who each have their own ringtone. Anybody not in my contact list gets a ringtone of "Who Are You" by The Who. If I hear that song, I know not to bother answering unless I'm in the mood to mess with someone.

[kphoger]

Yes, but the odds that they forge a number in my contacts list is pretty rare.

They do, however, commonly spoof a phone number that's in the same block/exchange/pool/allocation as my cell phone.  That is to say, they make it look like another local cell phone is calling me.

[NWI_Irish96]

Yes, but the odds that they forge a number in my contacts list is pretty rare.

They do, however, commonly spoof a phone number that's in the same block/exchange/pool/allocation as my cell phone.  That is to say, they make it look like another local cell phone is calling me.

Other than my wife, none of my contacts use that same exchange so it's pretty easy to recognize them as scams.

[mgk920]

There are times when I wish that I had the equipment and tech savvy to be able to take over a scammer's (from somewhere in India!) computer, download,install and activate a seriously evil ransomwear program on it while I was on the phone with him, and post the recorded call to YouTube when I was done!



Mike