OT: Phone Scams

[Renegade 13]

Heh, I only ever get the ones asking for "charity" money. I figure that if they have the cash on hand to call thousands of people, and employ people to call thousands of people, then they can't be too bad off financially, and don't need my cash.

[Gandalf Parker]

If any one calls you and tell you that you have won a grant, hang up. Grants are not won; they are applied for and awarded. You do not win grants

No no. Thats what makes these scams, or any telephone soliciting, profitable. The fact that they dont waste time on the wrong people.
Instead, have fun with it. See how long you can keep them talking to you before they realize that its a waste of time. Or at least tell them to hang on and lay the phone down. Or hand it to your kid. Something to waste their time. Dont just hangup or you will be helping them out.

Never trust emails, people at the door, or phone calls. All "phishing" or "social engineered hacking" have common basis. IF you are at all intrigued by the offer, such as it being a product you werent aware of which sounds interesting, then get the info and visit the site manually. Never click on links in emails, never enter contracts at your door, and never believe someone who calls YOU to be who they say they are.

Side note along the same line. Do you have a sign on the house or in the yard which says "alarm system by xxxxxx"? Trade with a neighbor. It serves the same purpose but protects you from phishing where they pretend to be your security company.

[Atrocities]

I hear they are hacking into cell phones with blue chips now and sending scam emails and phone calls to all the people in your contact file.

This is very aggervating.

[dogscoff]

Sometimes at work we get called up by machines trying to tell us we've won stuff- seriously, they're too cheap to even pay a human being to make the calls, it phones you up and plays a recorded message.

I leave it off the hook as long as possible- not only does it cost them the price of the call, but every second they're on the phone to me is a second that line is connected to someone who is not going to pay out.

Devious Plan A:

1) Use a happy-excited tone of voice as soon as you realize what is going on.
2) Say "this phone isn't secure, let me call you back from my other phone"
3) If they give you a real number to phone, forward it to the authorities!

Devious plan B
1) Use a happy-excited tone of voice as soon as you realize what is going on.
2) Say "this phone isn't secure, call me back on my other line"
3) Give them the number to a premium rate sex-chat line (preferably one that you get all the profits from=-)

Another nasty scam that's emerged in this country recently is that a woman knocks on your door and tells you that her car has broken down just up the road, and that her mobile phone is out of charge. She asks to use your phone to call her husband. You let her in and she makes the call, offering you a few coins for the price of the call. Her husband is "tied up in a meeting" or something, so she makes two or three short calls before finally getting through, then thanks you and leaves.

When you get your phone bill a few weeks/ months later, you discover that she actually dialled a premium rate number at something like £50 per minute, and guess who all that money goes to. Yup, her and her mafia friends.

The worst thing is that she hasn't even committed a crime: You gave her permission to use your phone. My advice- rather than to deny anyone use of your phone (because if this happens to you it's far more likely to be a genuine emergency than a scam) - is to ask for the number she wants to dial and dial it yourself, or just watch her dial. As long as you know what all the premium rate prefixes are in your country, you'll know straight away if you are being scammed.

[geoschmo]

dogscoff said:
The worst thing is that she hasn't even committed a crime: You gave her permission to use your phone.

I would be suprised if there wasn't some law being broken here. If nothing else you'd have a pretty much slam dunk case for civil court to recover you damages I would think. And it shouldn't be too hard for some prosecutor to get them on some kind of fraud charge. You gave her permission to use her phone to call her husband, not call some premium service to jack up your phone bill. Maybe a slick lawyer would keep her out of jail, but I can't imagine that the courts wouldn't at least insist she pay the money back.

That's assuming of course you could ever catch the person.

[GMLocutus]

Err..ok, I'm confused a bit here. You get a phone call..you're told you won a grant of 5k..and you never used an SE4 lines in your reply..such as "YOUR CITIES SHALL BURN IN VENGEFUL FIRE!!!"...Or after the droning of the "we're on the up and up" you never said "You have backed us into a corner there can only be war!"

still...it was funny to read.

[Mephisto]

Geoschmo, the "phone thing" would be a clear fraud in Germany and punishable under penal code.

[mrscrogg]

same exact thing happened to me Sat. afternoon , same conversation, everything, after I told him I was going to inform the FBI he hung up

[Power Man]

The same thing happened to me. The person seemed hurt that I would not give him my bank account number.
The phone number he gave to so I could check up on him did not work. The web site talked about a service that would help you APPLY for one of many grants ( for a small Fee).
He called back several times. He almost Pleaded with me to give hime my account number so that he could GIVE me the $10,000 the Government was Giving away.


I saw on another site that these calls are a SCAM. They get you in with a free application but with a small handeling charge. Then you never hear from them again.

Boy am I glad I did not bite on this one...

[Caduceus]

geoschmo said:
That's assuming of course you could ever catch the person.

Which is of course, next to impossible. Only large cities and the FBI can track problems like this (in the US). And many large cities don't have a computer division at all for fraud. You have to lose at least $5-10K in order for the police to justify an investigation.

We had a problem with Online sales a few years back and got bit pretty badly.