Community Chat

[ivey]

I got the call yesterday, and the man had a very heavy accent. Could barely understand him--but he said my Windows system was vulnerable. I just said, "no, no, no, no" and hung up.

I had a caller about a year ago from a call center and it was something about education and college info. (Like we can't get that here by contacting a school!). Anyway, they had called several times, and I politely but firmly told him to please take me out of their data base.

He got nasty and replied, "Shut your dirty, ******** mouth" and hung up. At first I was appalled and got mad. Then I thought it was funny because he probably hears that all day long while calling and bothering people.

[Jessa9]

I got a call like that and was suspicious. I told them I didn't have a computer and they hung up.

[dreamytoo]

I just got two of these calls within an hour of each other. First was a sweet voiced girl with an Indian accent named Rhana who said she was calling from windows. I told her I don't use any computers with windows. An hour later Jonathon called me and tried a little harder...I told him I am not running windows here and do not call again, you are running a scam. He hung up. My son really wanted to get the phone call so he could mess with them a little but unfortunately was at the gym when they called the second time.

Beware the number was a New York number...same number both times.

[dooBdoo]

These calls come in waves. I think the word gets out to inform the public, so they become aware... wary. Then, the calls abate for a time. Then, they start up again. It's sad to know we have to be on guard every time the phone rings.

I just got one a few days ago on my cell phone showing up as "No Caller ID." I didn't answer, and it went to voicemail. The message recorded said: "Please call our security department or simply press 1 now and you will be transferred to our 24/7 card activation hotline."

I did some Internet searches and discovered this is another scam targeting cell phones, intended to convince us to press a button or call back and either incur charges to our phone bill or be duped into providing information about our credit card(s).

[pickleslarue]

I had heard of this scam but still was surprised when it actually happened to me. I just hung up.

I guess even a small percentage of people falling for scams is lucrative.

I just read about a couple arrested for phishing, they got ~400 people to fall for giving them a TON of info thinking their bank (I think, but it may have been CC) requested it. Who knows how many bogus emails they had to send but 400 people falling for it was enough to garner them $.5M. It takes just a minute or so to report phishing so I always do but then wonder if it matters.

I recently heard of a scam on cell phones where they ring once to get the call registered as a missed call hoping you call back. If you do your bill gets crammed with a charge. Something similar was popular years ago on land lines but I guess they cleaned that up.

[dooBdoo]

On 2/13/2014 pickleslarue said:

I had heard of this scam but still was surprised when it actually happened to me. I just hung up.

I guess even a small percentage of people falling for scams is lucrative.

I just read about a couple arrested for phishing, they got ~400 people to fall for giving them a TON of info thinking their bank (I think, but it may have been CC) requested it. Who knows how many bogus emails they had to send but 400 people falling for it was enough to garner them $.5M. It takes just a minute or so to report phishing so I always do but then wonder if it matters.

I recently heard of a scam on cell phones where they ring once to get the call registered as a missed call hoping you call back. If you do your bill gets crammed with a charge. Something similar was popular years ago on land lines but I guess they cleaned that up.

pickleslarue (love the nic!), It's true, security experts say the reason the scams and hoaxes continue is the fact that they have so many who are taken in by them. And they can be really hard to prosecute when perpetrated by someone located outside the USA.

I posted a thread about the "ring once" cell phone scam. It's been reported to be happening more often across the country:

Scam targeting cell phones, rings once -- could cost you $$$ (please be cautious)