Community Chat

[handygal2]

Do you often get phone calls that show up on your caller ID as local numbers that appear to be from people in your neighborhood? I do! This is a very prevalent and onerous scam.

This youtube video is worth watching. It was featured recently on NBC News. Scary stuff...

https://youtu.be/dm2weICqrAE

[cotton4me]

We usually get about 6 - 12 scams calls a day.  Yesterday, four of the calls used our local exchange.  I have a call blocker that can block by exchange so I've blocked ours.  I don't know anyone that uses it so it works for us.  It's frustrating to say the least.  We received a recent email from our telephone co saying that they're going to begin marking scam calls so that what appears on caller ID will be the word SCAM, then the number. 

[DrKelli]

I've cut down on those substantially on my cell phone with the app Hiya.  All the robo calls I was getting was driving me crazy.

[Mz iMac]

I rarely get scam calls.  Once I saw my own phone # on my caller ID.

Once you "answer" a scam call, your phone # is "sold" on the "dark web" as a "live one!"

[NicksmomESQ]

   It’s happened to me several times.I either don’t pick up the call or immediately hang up.I never speak to them !!

[123SuzyQ123]

Yes, I've been getting those for about 6 months now.  One that I got last week even argued with me!!   I told him it was only 6:15 AM where I live and he had woken me!   I hung up and he called right back and said his time zone clock showed it to be 7:15 in my city.  I told him that even if that was true, it was still waaaay to early to be calling people to tell them they could get a free medical alert bracelet, and I hung up on him AGAIN!!   Ridiculous!

[makena]

Yes.

[shaggygirl]

YES! With increasing frequency! My area code and then the first 3 numbers are what probably 99% of the people in this town have as theirs. I often google the numbers and find they are supposedly from folks here in town or businesses here in town. There is NO WAY these are people who just dialed my number by mistake, it happens way too frequently. And I too have calls that show up as coming from my own phone number or the phone number on a separate line in one of my bedrooms. (I have 2 separate landline numbers).

[proudlyfromNJ]

Yes. I got one the other day with the local exchange and the name of my local grocery store. I looked up the grocery store and it was not the number that appeared on caller ID. 

I also get calls from myself! I never answer the phone unless I know who it is for sure.

[Carmie]

I get these familiar numbers calls every day.

And, the newest scam started yesterday.  I am expecting a call from someone in another area code, so when I got a call from that code, I answered.

i didn’t say  anything, I just picked up the phone.  The live caller on the line was a  woman who spoke perfect English, no accent.  She said she was calling about my unpaid electric bill. She went on about this being a courtesy call before my electricity was shut off.  She could take my payment over the phone.

i still hadn’t said a word.  She stopped talking and said “are you there.” I was still silent, then she said, “ You are there, I can hear you breathing.”  I still ignored her and she hung up.

Today I received two calls from “accounts receivable”. A message was left to call them back about a bill that is unpaid.  They could also take my payment over the phone.

I know that these calls are spam.  I have no outstanding unpaid bills. The spammers are trying to get people to pay their bills over the phone with threats to turn off your utilities. 

Even If you get a call from someone saying they are from a utility company and you know your bill is unpaid and you received a late notice in the mail, ask them to verify your name,  address and account number before you pay your bill over the phone.  Or hang up and call the utility back and speak to a customer service rep.