Scammers

[flowerbug]

it's really simple, when i answer the phone if i hear people in the background talking like it is a call center after a click then i know it is probably someone trying to sell me something and since we're on the do not call list that's already two strikes against them and i hang up and block the number.

the click is the transfer when their phone dialing machine determines they have someone who's answered and transfers your call to someone to talk to. we don't have anyone like that calling us that i care to talk to. nobody we personally know would do this and i don't participate in polls.

 

[Rammy]

The really annoying thing is that a lot of the legitamate companies outsource to India as well, so simply saying "If the person sounds Indian, it's a scam." doesn't work.

A month or so ago, my Dad got a call for me from my credit card company and was prepared to assume it was a scam and hang up. Luckily I caught it, and it turned out to be a legit call (I had just ordered some seeds from Germany, and had forgotten that the credit card company AUTOMATICALLY calls you if it detects your card being used outside the country.) So there I am, on the phone trying to confirm my identity (basically, the problem I was having was that they now confirm your identity by sending a conformation text to the phone number registered with the card, which in our case is our land line, which can't receive texts.) with my dad is next to me yelling at me that it's a scam and I need to hang up! I was sheer luck that I managed to get the thing ironed out at all (they can confirm via the account you paid your last bill from, but you need the last SIX digits of your account, and I only have the last four memorized [since that is all that is needed for paying on the phone. Luckily I happened to have just been to the bank so I had my checkbook with me in the room, which I normally wouldn't [Ever since I went to phone paying, I'm not sure I have written ANY checks in the last 5 years])

I know that many call centers are legitimate that happen to employ people from India as Ive called them for help on occassion. But when someone supposidly from the IRS calls me with a very thick accent saying Im going to be arrested because I owe alot of money, Im pretty sure its a scam.

 

[baymule]

I've never been hacked, but if I use Pay Pal, my credit card info gets used to buy stuff. So I no longer use Pay Pal. I only have a cell phone, no land line. If I don't know the number, I don't answer it. Leave a message.

 

[Marie2020]

I had some obviously from India call me on an IRS scam while I was in Walmart a couple years ago. Funny thing is, he wanted me to give him my name and case number to verify who I was.
Me: You called me. Shouldnt you already know who I am?
Him: This is very serious. We will send the police to arrest you. You owe alot of money.
Me:. Im in Walmart. Come get me.
Him: ............dial tone.

You should have said I am with my policeman friend right now would you like to speak to him

 

[Marie2020]

I've never been hacked, but if I use Pay Pal, my credit card info gets used to buy stuff. So I no longer use Pay Pal. I only have a cell phone, no land line. If I don't know the number, I don't answer it. Leave a message.

There was a time when PayPal got hacked and a lot of people's privacy was was seriously compromised.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sometimes I'm stuck where I have to answer. I have a call out to someone I want to talk to, often because they did not answer when I called and left a message or maybe through a business. A very recent example, the veterinarian was to call back. Her office number is on contacts so that name shows up but she used her personal cell phone to call. I didn't have that number. I can't even restrict answering to local numbers, many people have moved from other states and kept their old numbers. You don't know if the person is local or not.

Within the last few weeks someone obviously sold my wife's phone number to the scamming network. She's been getting 10 to 12 calls a day that the phone identifies as "scammer". Typically she gets one of those calls just after 9:00 AM local time and the last comes in just before 5:00 PM. That timing is almost a joke between us but every now and then somebody breaks scammer union rules and calls outside that allotted time frame. Of course she doesn't answer if it is identified as scammer or it shows up as an out of state call. She's kind of picky with in-state calls too.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

it's really simple, when i answer the phone if i hear people in the background talking like it is a call center after a click then i know it is probably someone trying to sell me something and since we're on the do not call list that's already two strikes against them and i hang up and block the number.

the click is the transfer when their phone dialing machine determines they have someone who's answered and transfers your call to someone to talk to. we don't have anyone like that calling us that i care to talk to. nobody we personally know would do this and i don't participate in polls.

You have to careful around that sometimes. I’ve had that happen a few times where I’ve hung up and it turned out to be a new pharmacy my doctor was using or dentist. Have also hung up a cousin before thinking that it was a telemarketer.

 

[Marie2020]

You have to careful around that sometimes. I’ve had that happen a few times where I’ve hung up and it turned out to be a new pharmacy my doctor was using or dentist. Have also hung up a cousin before thinking that it was a telemarketer.

I'm laughing but it's really not funny

A good company should log how many calls they have recieved from from their customers and log the relevant information.
I have been continually distracted by non stop calls received from my energy, phone cashcard and internet provider for around five weeks.
The cash card was me having too call because of endless glitches with their card, even my refunds going missing. It can take up to an hour too reach a human to talk with and you have different information each time. Then you will get the next person apologising because you have been given the wrong info

On top of what I've already said about this company..
I was sent a second phone through some sort of mistake which sent my phone bill through the roof
I ordered one phone and 1 sim card. I was sent two of each and my bill more than doubled, i was almost charged for 3 phones plus the cards.

Then there was countless calls for returning this one phone which now has gone missing . If I had a pound for every call I could go on holiday

Thank God so far there's no scammers . I won't have a landline because that's where I may have been trapped and harassed in the past, along with being online . To the cost of my home and life being seriously compromised.

 

[Rammy]

You should have said I am with my policeman friend right now would you like to speak to him

That would of been fun.

 

[flowerbug]

You have to careful around that sometimes. I’ve had that happen a few times where I’ve hung up and it turned out to be a new pharmacy my doctor was using or dentist. Have also hung up a cousin before thinking that it was a telemarketer.

if i answer and say hello and there is a significant pause and then i hear a click and some strange voice who doesn't even pronounce our name properly or know us, well it's almost always a scammer. we don't have many of the contacts to worry about calling us out of the blue. so, yeah, i hang up. i don't talk to them beyond "Hello." if it is someone who seriously needs to get ahold of us they'll call back and actually say something other than having dead silence followed by a click and a room full of people talking. it just doesn't happen that often that this sort of contact is really an actual person we know and need to talk to.