Community Chat

[Puzzle Piece]

On 8/8/2014 hckynut said:

I love phone scams myself. I get them off script and have them either backing up/mumbling or hanging up. Like Clint says: "Go Ahead, Make My Day".

If I could only send the scammers of my phone line over to yours. You'd have a great time!

[Moonchilde]

On 8/8/2014 BlueCollarBabe said:

We don't usually answer our phone. If caller id identifies the call as coming from someone we wish to speak with then we call that person back. Only time I answer the phone is if I'm expecting a call and, again, having caller id lets me know that it's the call I'm waiting for.

Same here. I look at the caller ID when the phone rings, and if it's not family I wait for someone to leave a message - at which time I will pick up if I want the call. These days, 99% of the calls I get just hang up - they must not get brownie points if they don't speak to a human.

[kdgn]

There's another telephone scam that was recently outlined in our local paper. Someone calls identifying themselves as a representative from Publisher's Clearing House. The caller tells you that you've won both money and a car, all you have to do is send a check to cover taxes. The caller asks for no personal information, he/she just tells you the address of where to send the check. Your check and car will be delivered the next day.

The older woman who reported the call (in her early 80's) said she knew it was a scam even though she enters the PCH contests yearly. She strung the caller along, said she'd send a check. She was called the next morning by the rep, asked if the check had been sent. She said the mailman had just picked it up.

Of course no check or car was delivered to her that day. She had already called the local sheriff. The paper said the man didn't have to elicit any personal information from the woman because IF she had sent in a check, it would have all been there: name, address, bank, account number.

Publisher's Clearing House has issued statements on this. They never call, they do NOT collect taxes. They do NOT send emails.

The woman said she knew it was a scam, had read about phone scams and the elderly. Then she had a good point: Who owes only $254 in taxes on both a large amount of money and a car??

[terrier3]

On 8/9/2014 kdgn said:

There's another telephone scam that was recently outlined in our local paper. Someone calls identifying themselves as a representative from Publisher's Clearing House. The caller tells you that you've won both money and a car, all you have to do is send a check to cover taxes. The caller asks for no personal information, he/she just tells you the address of where to send the check. Your check and car will be delivered the next day.

The older woman who reported the call (in her early 80's) said she knew it was a scam even though she enters the PCH contests yearly. She strung the caller along, said she'd send a check. She was called the next morning by the rep, asked if the check had been sent. She said the mailman had just picked it up.

Of course no check or car was delivered to her that day. She had already called the local sheriff. The paper said the man didn't have to elicit any personal information from the woman because IF she had sent in a check, it would have all been there: name, address, bank, account number.

Publisher's Clearing House has issued statements on this. They never call, they do NOT collect taxes. They do NOT send emails.

The woman said she knew it was a scam, had read about phone scams and the elderly. Then she had a good point: Who owes only $254 in taxes on both a large amount of money and a car??

They made a pretty good movie about something like this..."Nebraska" with Bruce Dern.

[Puzzle Piece]

Terrier - So now this crime is in a movie? I didn't see Nebraska but will when it's released on satellite.

I have caller ID and an answering machine and got the message/s left anyway for the SCAMS. The one that was about the warrants - my husband informed the FBI that now the scammers were using false law enforcement tactics to get the info.

[nafecar]

We had a call yesterday from someone in Washington DC I was concerned so I picked up, this very foreign sounding person said we were being investigated for failing to pay income taxes and before they sent out the formal papers for our immediate arrest we would need to call a certain number to verify our information. Duh do they think just because we are up in years we are stupid? Normally I wouldn't even pick up the phone but the caller ID concerned me, its too bad there wasn't a live person on the other end or he would have gotten an ear full of no so nice comments. I may be older but I am not that easily fooled.

[Clover29]

We moved in May and got a new phone number, which isn't listed anywhere. For the time being, the only calls we get are legit. I'm curious as to how long it will take before we do start getting the junk, spam and scam calls. It's going to happen eventually, but we're enjoying the junk-free time we still have.

[Puzzle Piece]

Clover29 - I don't know how long things will take but you can count on being on someone's list sometime soon.