Telephone Scammers Scams The Wrong Victim

[Judge]

ROTFLMAO. Some Jamaican scammer attempted to steal from a former director of both the CIA and FBI.

VERY BAD IDEA, MON.

Though the story does reflect the increase of such scams, and how they are particularly targeting older people.

Telephone scam artist picked the wrong target — former FBI and CIA director William Webster

 

[Crossbreed]

Some Jamaican scammer attempted to steal from a former director of both the CIA and FBI.

"Taken" Phone Speech​

 

[BraidedPony]

Great story. My mom fell victim to a caller. They told her she could save money on her car insurance if she paid in advance by credit card. She was upset that she was fooled and it really damaged her trust in herself which was worse than losing $2000.
When I hear about people who prey on seniors I could strangle them with glee. I’m growling like a pit bull....

 

[Fino]

I got a text saying I could get $15,000 in student loan debt forgiveness if I call the number. BRB

 

[BraidedPony]

 

[Stardust Parade]

I give them hell every time they call and it's a live person and not a robot.

 

[Judge]

I give them hell every time they call and it's a live person and not a robot.

Of course. It's when you actually choose to answer such a call, the scammer is cued by their electronic system to talk to you. Up until that point it's likely that the whole process is robotic. Though in a few rare cases they actually respond to an answering machine with a prerecorded message. I've gotten those a few times...the silly ones threatening my arrest for not paying a non-existent IRS bill....lol. Complete with a phony 202 area code.

Unfortunately such software makes the whole process quite efficient for criminal scammers. In my own case I simply disconnect without ever bothering to talk to them. Though I wonder if they ever review their own call records to realize that when robotically calling my number, they have a 100% failure rate. Sufficient reason to drop my number from their database. Where I am a waste of their time more so than them wasting my time.

 

[Ken S.]

I have my own method for handling telephone scammers. I have a canned air horn handy & say deafness in 3, 2, 1 and give them a nice blast. Most of the time they are saying "What?" to my count down then mysteriously they hang up and never call back.

 

[tducey]

Some people fall for this. I'm usually pretty smart about it. I think these scammers are some of the lower people in society.

 

[SusanLR]

I let my voicemail and caller ID do the sorting.
There is one that calls (robotic) at least twice per day for the past month.
Very annoying.
Looks like there could be something done about the frequency. Someone to report it too.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

I'm imagining you turning towards a tree.

 

[Progster]

Video starts up automatically ... grrr... Could people please put a warning if they post a link to an automatically starting video?

My solution is simple... I never answer the phone to a number that I don't recognise, because it is nearly always either a cold call or a scam call. If I need people to contact me, I give them my mobile number, but also ask them to give me their number so I can recognise them if they call.

 

[Kevin1968]

Got called by one a couple of days ago, when he asked if I do online banking I told him I don't have a bank account. I claimed I was scammed years ago out of €100,000 and now earned just €200 per week.
He offered me a job (effectively money laundering through my bank account I think)

I told him then that I would rather starve then make money scamming people like he does. He hung up.

 

[Judge]

I let my voicemail and caller ID do the sorting.

Pity that criminals and telemarketers have all but ruined caller id.

It no longer tells you who is calling, but rather who is not calling. Though for me it still remains a primary means in which to disconnect the caller whoever they actually are, even given the vast majority of them "spoof" their call. Meaning the number and name showing is not the actual caller.

This year I've had a rash of the "neighborhood scam". Where the scammer uses those first six numbers of your phone number to lull one into a false sense of security. But in my case I've NEVER known anyone personally who shared those same numbers, so it's equally easy to conclude that they are all hostile callers.

Sadly though, services like nomorobo.com cannot screen out these kind of calls, and scammers know it. Otherwise when I get a classic robocall, nomorobo lets it ring once, show "incoming call", then it simply goes away without my phone noting there was a call. Nice.

And that (in the US) only your provider can instantly determine the actual number used, and can only share it with law enforcement rather than their own customers. With my provider it costs $20 a pop to do this. But without being able to know the actual number, why bother unless you were already the victim of a scam?

 

[Nervous Rex]

I have tried a few approaches.

One time I told the guy who called "from Microsoft to fix a bug on my computer" that I would connect to the internet as he asked. I said "I have a dial-up line so it may interfere with KRTCHTHTVHHTCVH" and then I hung up. The guy was so desperate for a score that he called back twice more. I passed the phone to my kids for them to say whatever stupid things they wanted.

Lately, I just wait to talk to a person, then I try to talk them into getting a real job. I tell them, "You can't do this for the rest of your life. You need to go get an education and get a real job - something you can be proud of." I actually had one guy meekly say, "Okay" through my whole spiel and then hang up. Most others hang up the second they realize I'm not going to fall for their thing.

 

[Judge]

My only concern in responding to these people is pretty basic. They aren't practical jokers with a twisted sense of humor. These are criminals. Many who may be downright mean and malicious personally. Kind and considerate people don't usually seek crime as a means to make a living. What I'm getting at is that such mentalities may be prone to retaliation in the event you personally cross them.

But they're likely long distance callers. What harm can they do? Simple. They can spoof your own phone number. Imagine suddenly getting phone calls from legitimate and very irate people because they think that YOU have tried to scam THEM. It happens...though legally speaking it's very easy for a provider to show that a call was spoofed and that it was someone else using your phone number. In essence many people out there have still never even heard of "spoofing" caller ids.

It's not worth the hassle. So much easier to just click-click rather than to speak to them, get angry and potentially risk them retaliating by spoofing your number. Let them waste their resources on you if they must. But you can opt to waste as few of them as possible in keeping them at bay with the least effort.

I've thought of all kinds of ways to respond to such people as well. Wow, to think of the anger and frustration I once devoted to this problem. But it just isn't worth the effort- or the waste of my own emotions.

 

[Nervous Rex]

My only concern in responding to these people is pretty basic. They aren't practical jokers with a twisted sense of humor. These are criminals. Many who may be downright mean and malicious personally. Kind and considerate people don't usually seek crime as a means to make a living. What I'm getting at is that such mentalities may be prone to retaliation in the event you personally cross them.

That's the voice of sanity right there. The best way to deal with any potentially antagonistic situation is to not engage.

Thanks for ruining my evil, retaliatory thoughts.

 

[Judge]

That's the voice of sanity right there. The best way to deal with any potentially antagonistic situation is to not engage.

Thanks for ruining my evil, retaliatory thoughts.

LOL, I've had my share of such thoughts. I just never went through with them.

Loved the idea of playing an MP3 file with police department background noises, while answering like a precinct desk sergeant, asking the caller to state the nature of their call. Or better yet, to simply answer the call by simply reciting the caller's Miranda Rights, pertinent to interstate fraud.

But yeah, in the end it means spending time and effort regarding someone steeped in automation in an attempt to perpetrate a crime. Just ain't worth the effort. Especially if they choose to retaliate in some manner.

Easier just to press two buttons on my phone to just cut the connection. Talk-off.

 

[Crossbreed]

Video starts up automatically ... grrr... Could people please put a warning if they post a link to an automatically starting video?

If you are talking about my video, it's your browser that is auto-starting it. I did not set it to do so.

 

[Progster]

If you are talking about my video, it's your browser that is auto-starting it. I did not set it to do so.

I meant the video in the link in the OP. I got annoyed because I couldn't find how to turn it off and because I don't like videos suddenly starting up on their own - I have since found that it only starts when my mouse is over the video, as soon as you take the mouse away, it stops.