Community Chat

[kivah]

I've received a couple of these calls. The guy has a thick accent!!!!!

[Jordan2]

My elderly mother has gotten these calls and other scam calls, she is with it enough not to fall prey to them. I have called the Federal Trade Commission several times to report them but there is really nothing they can do. I live in NYC and they had a story this past week on the news about the IRS scam It seems the scammers are telling the victims to wire them money using Walmart. I have a great senator, Charles Schumer (Amy's cousin) who is on top of this. You have to feel sorry for people who don't know this is a scam and send money. I heard the scammers have made millions on this.

[KimThib]

I've gotten a few of these this year, and also last year.  If I see a Wash DC area code, I don't even answer  now.  However, last year they got hold of me--I never talk like this, but I told them to F*** Off and that I was going to report them to the authorities and hung up--and then I did!

[muttmom]

I received one last year from a live man with a heavy accent.  He knew my name and where I lived.  I knew it was a scam so hung up.  He kept call back leaving threatening messages on our machine.  I reported his number, for all the good it it.

Recently I received another that was clearly a recording stating there was a sheriff outside my home waiting to take me to jail.  This time no name or address was mentioned.

These calls are awful  I know an elderly woman who fell for the one that her grandson in college had been arrested and needed money for bail.  They called in the middle of the night, knew her grandson's nickname.  She didn't understand how the information she'd given out on Facebook could have been the source of the information.

[AuntG]

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@SharkE wrote:

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@RetRN wrote:

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@chrystaltree wrote:

The elderly people I know aren't that clueless and unsophisticaed.  They know IRS never calls anyone, ditto for SSA and banks. 

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I guess that would be you and your exclusive group of intellectuals. Must be nice to know it all and have all of the answers.

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How rude ! People on these boards ...How was these people raised

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I think they "was" raised to understand that many elderly people are easily confused and could be taken in by scam artists. 

[Alter Ego]

I just received a few phone messages this week - definitely sounding a little more legit than somebody with a deep accent.  Message says that I will be reported for being noncompliant and that either I or my lawyer must contact them.  Then my file number was given to me via a computized voice.  My co-worker talked me into calling them back (using *67 and not on my phone - this is when I miss payphones!) and we got a message from a different American voice saying they were from the US Investigion Service and to leave my name and the file number.  We did not.

On the same day, my mother and aunt both received the IRS phone call.  They live in the same suburb, so it must have been targeted that day.  Or, my family is just a bunch of crooks!  LOL

Anyways, my aunt fell for that grandson calling and needing money call many years ago.  The caller kept her on the phone (so she couldn't contact her daughter) while my uncle went to send the money.  She had no idea until a few months later when she brought it up to her grandson about when he was going to pay her back!  The caller was very convincing - like somebody said, they obviously must have looked at the grandson's facebook page and knew things.

Finally, with regards to age - I think seniors are targeted for reasons previously discussed.  But, it's definitely not only seniors who fall for these scams.  My coworker's teen daughter fell for the computer scam.  The guy was already in their computer when the daughter went to her mother for her credit card number to give the guy!  Luckily, my coworker knew how to handle it and the guy on the phone was NOT HAPPY when to kicked him out!  Luckily, they stopped him before any serious damage was done.

I did have my wifi held hostage in exchange for bit coins (I think it was only like $25).  It was easily fixed on my end (I was using a default password as my providor never told me that it existed and that I needed to change it).

[DoneTryin]

After posting here on Fri, I found a message on my landline later that day from these scumbags.  A recorded woman's voice threatening me, blah, blah, blah.  Since I have nomorobo, it obviously was not a robocall.  The caller ID was someplace in WA state & the phone number "she" told me to call was the same as what was on Caller ID.  Of course, I just deleted the message & will try to block that phone number, though I know those people change their number all the time.  What a bunch of ****!!

[Lipstickdiva]

If you've never received these calls, you don't know how intimidating they are.  I have received them twice in one day.  To someone even slightly unsure, these callers immediately get very nasty on the phone.  I was told right off the bat that this guy was calling from the IRS and that I was NOT to speak until he was totally done telling me what the problem was.

He then went on to tell me I had failed to file my taxes for X number of years and that I owed over $2,500 in unpaid taxes and that they were going to put a "line" on everything I owned and I would have no access to me bank accounts.  I was told that the "autorities" were going to arrest me. 

I knew it was a scam but put an elderly person on the phone who is on a limited income and they immediately think they are going to have access to no funds, their home and vehicles are going to be taken and someone is coming to get them unless they pay, and this scares them.

I went right back at the person and told him I knew the IRS didn't call like this, I knew I had been filing my taxes all along and that the word was lien and not line.  That infuriated him and he really started to yell and scream and get nasty at which time, I laughed and hung up.

That night, another heavily accented male called the house asking for my DH.  I answered again and informed him that someone had already tried to scam me out of money earlier in the day and it wasn't going to work.  Again, this guy started yelling and screaming at me.  I told him to get a job and quit scamming people and hung up.  I've not rec'd a call since.

Just today at work we rec'd the call from Microsoft.  LOL     

[KingstonsMom]

We were sick of the scam calls, telemarketers, surveys and now politicians, so we bought the Call Blocker by Digitone for around $100.

BEST investment ever! Easy to set up and use and it blocks a ton of #'s. My house has never been so quiet! At first it was almost eerily quiet, but I LOVE not having to get up to check the caller ID all the time!

It was the highest rated call blocker on the market according to recent tests by Consumer Reports.

Amazon is where I bought ours, you can read about it there.

I'm afraid a link may be deleted, since I saw a thread about Infinity pools was deleted because it "contained a link".

To the best of my knowledge QVC doesn't sell Infinity pools, so I'm not sure why the link got it deleted.

Just make sure it's the one made by Digitone, since some of the other brands names are similar.

[Krimpette]

Just got one of the scam call "final notice from the IRS" messges on my answering machine.  I went to the IRS website and reported the number that was left on my machine as a call back number.