New telephone scam?

[reb]

Best thing I did was to buy a phone with"call block",if I don't like the number I just block it....easy.

Good idea, but these scammers have a way to change the caller id number.

 

[TnAndy]

Good idea, but these scammers have a way to change the caller id number.

Yep. Got a scam call from my own number one day.

 

[kf4uda]

Yep. Got a scam call from my own number one day.[/QUOTE

I got one of those once on my cellphone. Of course, I did not answer it.

 

[Tompet]

Used to be that you had to re-register on a cycle that I think was 5 years. A couple of years ago it changed so that if you have ever registered you stay on until the number has a new owner. The problem is they (telemarketers) ignore the list as the feds will not prosecute except in the most egregious cases as there are too many of them. The other problems is there are so many loopholes for so called charities (just about anything that is a non-profit) and any company that you have ever had business with in any form is excepted form the rules of the do not call registry. Now that the technology has gotten so that just about anyone can put in a fake number to show up on your caller ID you can't even reliably report the offender because the number that you report does not exist for that company. I even had my own number show up as having been calling me on the caller ID. I would like to know how they automated the fake caller ID to identify the caller as the telephone number they are calling to not from. Even has my name with my number. First time I thought it was a repairman who tied into the line to test it but no it was telemarketers.

Good explanation, it seemed the DNCL seemed to work really well in the past, at least for me. However, I just noticed this past year it seems the marketer calls are way more frequent.

 

[farmer2009]

I have found that if you are rude and crude enough to several of them then calls stop or atleast fall below one a week. Seems they have a do not call list between them.
The last guy that got smart with me seen my temper and he threatened to place his big Johnson in an orface of mine. I told him to come on and I'd cut it off and nail it to the wall with the others. That was 6 months ago and my calls dropped instantly from 5-6 a day to one a week. Except election calls and nothing helps them. I just hang up.

 

[fishheadbob]

Caller I.D. shows on my TV screen. To quote my wife "I don't believe I know anyone who lives in the 800 area code" or just about any area code we don't recognize.
Got lots of robo calls from Suzy at "the credit card company" offering to save me lots of $$$. Press one for a representative. If I repeat "Bob" the representatives' name when I tell him to take me off the list it works after 2 or 3 tries.

 

[Otto Syracuse]

I LOVE getting these call! I usually will answer: "Frank's Septic Service, you poop it, we scoop it!"

Always dead silence.

 

[mjarrels]

Hello... you have reached the IRS.

 

[EddieWalker]

I never answer the phone if the zip code is outside my area if I don't know the number. 90% of the time they don't leave a message. Lately I've been getting a call every day from a different state. No message, just kind of fun seeing what state they are calling from. We have been joking about it, but I sometimes wonder what their scam is.

Back before smart phones and being able to see the number calling I heard on the radio that a good way to fight back on unwanted phone calls was to keep them on the line as long as possible. Talk to them, sound interested and then tell them to hold on a minute. Then put the phone down and see how long they wait before hanging up. I tried it a few times and they where always gone when I checked the phone again after doing whatever I was doing. I don't know how effective it was, but I don't remember getting anymore calls from them.

Eddie

 

[PILOON]

I had a tone generator that I clipped on the line. (actually a real phone tracer)
That drove them crazy and they'd hang up.

 

[Bird]

A newspaper article this morning tells of a scam I hadn't yet heard about. Some woman in Oregon is calling people, usually the elderly, to get them to renew their newspaper or magazine subscription. Apparently she's actually renewing some and paying for them, but charging folks a great deal more than if they'd just called the publisher themselves. But in other cases, she's collecting the money and not even paying for the renewal.

 

[Tig]

The niece/nephew/grandchild in jail in a ugly one. On at least two occasions my wife has called police to prevent seniors from wiring bail money for dubious reasons. The police are real good with this. They not only alert police at the other end of the wire transfer, they track down the relative in question and have them talk to the kind relative wiring the money.

 

[QRTRHRS]

My wife is deaf and though her coclear implant helps, she cannot use the phone and I don't use it much either. The only reason we keep the land line is in case of an emergency and our cell coverage is not the best.

Even though we were on the so called do not call registry, we were getting more and more calls. I recently re-registered and after a month, it seems to have helped as the calls have about stopped. I am almost never near the phone and when I am, I would never pick up without looking at the caller ID anyway. Though I would not waste my time by picking up and taking issue with someone, I did come close recently. I was getting calls from some Keystone College (in PA of course) at ten o'clock on Sunday nights? I mean, how ignorant is that? Anyway, that was what prompted me to re-register and as I said, it seems to be helping.

 

[Danny C]

I got a call from someone with a foreign accent claiming to be from Microsoft. It seems my computer is somehow responsible for some kind of mischief. Before he got into the details, my temper got the best of me and I responded with an impolite remark and hung up. This is the second time this has happened. The first time was several months ago. The phone number on the caller id said the call came from some small rural network in the northern midwest. The second call was last night. The caller id number was an obvious fake--234567890. Before he got to any details I hung up again. Now I wish I had listened long enough to learn what was going on. Has this happened to anyone else?

It is a scam. When you got your computer, you did not have to register with Microsoft, so how would Microsoft then get your name and phone number? They use Microsoft because like 70% of all computers run some variant of Windows.

They want access to your computer, then wish to use that access to get ot your personal information and even monitor your web traffic including online banking, email and such.

I've had fun with them many times. I go along, pretending to follow their instructions, asking questions, playing dumb and when they get to the end and ask what the screen says, I normally say something of the funny and vulgar category. Oh, the fun!

 

[dmccarty]

A newspaper article this morning tells of a scam I hadn't yet heard about. Some woman in Oregon is calling people, usually the elderly, to get them to renew their newspaper or magazine subscription. Apparently she's actually renewing some and paying for them, but charging folks a great deal more than if they'd just called the publisher themselves. But in other cases, she's collecting the money and not even paying for the renewal.

One of the magazines I used to get had a company mailing out new subscription requests that were about twice the real cost. The "company" would pay the subscription and keep the difference. The magazine would warn against this frequently but this is certainly something that many people would not notice.

When spammers would call my uncle he would talk to them for a bit and then put down the phone. Every once in awhile he might pick up the phone and give them a "a huh" to keep them talking. :thumbsup::laughing::laughing::laughing: He figured anything he could do to waste there time kept the idiots from bothering someone else. :thumbsup:

Decades ago a group of us from work went out to eat lunch. We were waiting outside to get a table and a nearby pay phone rang. I picked up the phone and it was a spammer. :shocked: Just then we were told our table was ready so I gave the guy a couple "A huhs" and went inside to eat lunch. :laughing::laughing::laughing: I bet he talked for at five minutes before he figured it out. I put the phone back on the hook when we left. :laughing:

Later,
Dan