Con artistry by phone.

Just now I read a friend's post on a social network, regarding how he almost got conned by someone on the phone. He wrote:

A person with a heavy Indian accent identified himself as John Bright and claiming to be with the investigative division of the IRS called just few minutes ago. He stated that the agency claims we have a deficiency and if we ignored his call legal action would be filed or possibly an arrest within two hours. He told me to contact Damon Marshall immediately. This is a scam, be careful. Do not give out any information to such callers! His number is a cell phone, based in Brooklyn! Obviously the IRS has offices, and they always send a letter or written notice to the taxpayer before contacting people. After I started asking him questions he hung up on me after calling me names.

So reading this reminded me of a similar experience which I had last year. The person claimed to be a representative of my cell phone service provider company - Long story short, I was told that I had won a random cash prize (of a huge amount) - So the cell company was calling me to confirm and update my info, like the CNIC number (computerized national identity card), and NTN (national tax number), as well as my current home address. Oh yeah, the person also asked my bank account information too (so they can deposit my winnings into it directly)... At this point I smelled a rat, so I said sure, I'll update my information - But if you really are calling from my cell company, you'll already be knowing both my first and last name, as well as my father's name. So can you please read out my info back to me, so I can be sure that this is not a hoax?

At this point the caller, who by the way was a woman with a low and somewhat suddictive voice - Told me that she has the information written in front of her on the screen. But she is calling to determine if this cell phone number is actually being used by the person it is registered to, or someone else. So I said fine, I'll simply go to your head office and collect my so called prize from there!

So this is where the caller became somewhat angry, and told me that she needed this information right now, or the prize will jump to someone else. But I still stuck to my guns! So finally she started to plead, this time saying that she is the only breadwinner in her family, and if I don't claim my prize immediately, she will also lose her commision.

And when this too didn't work for her, she shamelessly (in her heavy seductive voice) offered to "reward" me by meeting me in person, at a time and place of my own choosing - But I had to first give her all my information... So at this point, I decided to simply end the call...

Anyway, how often do you guys get such calls?

 

We never pick up/answer on a number we don't recognize. If it is important we figure they will leave a message. Then we can determine whether or not to call back. If the caller becomes a pest we simply block the calls. It has made life so much simpler. Cell phones make it all so easy to rule these calls out.

 

We don't because we have a service in the UK called the Telephone Preference Service and if you register with it companies are legally not allowed to call you.If they do then they can be fined a substantial amount of money. Sadly it doesn't apply to companies trying it on from abroad but as our number is ex-directory (and has been for many years) it isn't generally easy to find.

We also have something called the Mailing preference service so we can opt out of getting junk mail too.Finally our council's electoral register,which can be sold to marketing companies ) gives us the option to not include our info.

 

I have had several calls from Dell Computers and Microsoft,..on my land line,..they usually say,.."we are calling you about your computer,..you may be downloading Malware,..",..so i always ask how do you know there is a computer here,..reply,..we can see it on the internet,..oh i reply this is a Police National Computer,..and restricted,..please give me your name and location,..they hang up,.. :twisted:

 

I've had 'Microsoft' call me on a few occasions. The first time I thought I would have a little fun with them and pretended to do what they were asking. Finally I asked them if they thought I was an idiot and that angered the caller very much LOL I just hang up when they call now. I have also recently been getting a lot of calls for the "Air Miles" scam. So sad that people don't have better things to do with their time...

 

I occasionally get calls from someone claiming to be from Microsoft informing me that my Windows computer has a virus, and that they need to access my computer to fix it. The problem is, I don't run Windows. I usually string them along for a while then ask them to tell me which version of Windows I'm running. The most common answer is XP. I make them keep guessing for a while and finally explain that I don't run Windows. They either hang up, or start trying to fix my MacIntosh computer. I don't use Macs either. If I mention Linux, they get angry and hang up immediately.

The most common scam is some company trying to give me a "free' home security system. I string them along for a while, too. I get the details of the system (free keypad, free this, free that) and eventually ask about the monthly monitoring. Sometimes they quote a price, sometimes they say they don't have that information. I then ask them how a system that I have to pay for every month can be called free. They'll start on a long sales pitch, but I interrupt them and ask them to explain the free part. They hang up after the second or third interruption. Telemarketers get paid by the sale. If you waste their time, they'll mark your number as a bad contact and they'll eventually stop calling.

If I don't have time to chat, but want them to leave me alone, I'll tell them I can only talk to them under certain conditions. Then I insist they tell me what type of underwear they are wearing. This only works on female telemarketers, but they hang up really fast. They also tag your number as a bad contact because they don't want to talk to you again.

The US also has a "Do Not Call" list, but telemarketers use it as a contact list. It's not very effective.

 

I've won several million GBP on a random lottery where my cell phone number was picked out. All I had to do was phone a named person and claim my money. I never got around to phoning so I'm still not a millionaire.

Microsoft has phoned me a couple of times. I usually play stupid and let them rant on for a while. Then I tell them we don't own a computer so they must have us confused with our neighbours. Strangely enough they won't believe me.

 

I just had the "free" home monitering service awarded to us and we are the only recipients in our area to get this...Really? I am not interested. I tell them "I leave the doors unlocked so the thieves don't break the doors coming in to take our unvaluable "stuff". We collect nothing, keep no money to speak of in the house, have really old computers...etc. I have found I am not as squeamish as I used to be. I will defend myself, my husband, my family etc. "they" will be very surprised at the amount of resistance they find in their " victims" here....so I turn them down again and again.

But I am sick to death of the numerous "google" listing calls we keep getting. "do you know you are not listed at the top of the google business page? press one to be connected to an agent now to update your free google listing, blah, blag, blah, blather, blather, blather.... Press 9 to be removed from our list immediately"

 

Well getting calls from Microsoft is clearly a scam, and I don't know much about Google becoming a pest... However, in cases such as mine - Where identity theft is the real issue, is what concerns me the most. As in today's world, what will happen if your identity is stolen, and used by terrorists??? At first the authorities will jump on you without any mercy. Only afterwards will they realize that they got the wrong man (or woman)... By which time your life would have been devastated for sure. So never give out the names of your parents, your bank account information, and certainly not your CNIC or NTN!

It is however wonderful to know that none of us ever fell victim to this sort of thing. Which now brings me to another issue - Why do people still try doing this, specially when there is such a low chance of success???

Seriously, wouldn't it be better if all the time and energy invested in such fraudulent schemes - Be put in something productive instead? Surely even a harebrained business idea will stand a much better chance of success when compared to this! Yet there is still no shortage of people trying to pull off something like this at every turn... Sigh!

 

I have a special "junk" email account that I use whenever I sign up for something or send off for information. It's fun to see how many times a week I get an offer to share in someone's billion dollar inheritance if I only give them my bank acct info so they can transfer it "legally."

I remember growing up and spending the night at a friend's house. I'd sat down to have dinner with them when the phone rang (isn't always during dinner?). The father answered and about ten seconds later went into a loud whisper about how he told the caller (presumably a female) how she was never supposed to call him at home when the wife was around, how he'd meet her that weekend in their secret spot, and such. I glanced at my friend's mom expecting to see a shocked and hurt expression on her face. But no, she merely took a bite of her salad. My friend nudged me and said, "Sales call."

Her dad put in an Oscar wining performance. I can only imagine what the caller sounded like on the phone and what she thought.

 

I get emails all the time telling me I need to update my infomation, (name, password, etc.,), I just ignore them.

 

Well, whenever I have to sign-up for something new (which I do not trust at first) - I only use those 10 minute disposable emails. Really saves a lot of headaches down the road.

http://10minutemail.com/10MinuteMail/index.html
http://www.my10minutemail.com/
https://www.guerrillamail.com/

 

S-H, I have never heard of 10 minute email. What a great idea.