How does this scam work?

[MoodyBlues]

I've had the Micro$oft 'tech support calls several times. If I feel like having fun I 'll let them witter on and give silly answers to their questions then suddenly say 'Gotcha - I 've been running Backtrack and have your IP address, ' I've hear them say 'Oh F*CK' and hang up. the quickest way to get rid of them is just say 'This should be fun'.

Ha ha ha!

I get into trouble because I'm thinking ahead. I start cracking myself up thinking about what fun this will be and what I'm going to say...and then I can't carry it off!

 

[puppykickr]

I've had the Micro$oft 'tech support calls several times. If I feel like having fun I 'll let them witter on and give silly answers to their questions then suddenly say 'Gotcha - I 've been running Backtrack and have your IP address, ' I've hear them say 'Oh F*CK' and hang up. the quickest way to get rid of them is just say 'This should be fun'.

<poor pigeon english accent>
"Herro Mr. Davidi. How are you today? My name is Steve and I am calling you from the Google Window Microsoft to notify you of the bad, slow, security issue on your computer account with the corporation. If you would please be kind enough to turn on your computer and provide me with your computer passcode then I will be more than happy to provide this help for you today my friend...."

 

[tube517]

For the IT scam calls, I imitate their accent right back to them and play dumb and they hang up after a while lol. Haven't done that in years.

Youmail blocks any non contact list calls so I don't get any annoying calls. I also have scam shield w/Tmobile which blocks some calls for me as well.

 

[AlRoss0908]

It happened with me a few years ago, but the bill was huge, and I'm not talking about 99$

 

[MoodyBlues]

It happened with me a few years ago, but the bill was huge, and I'm not talking about 99$

How? What happened?

 

[policeman26]

Youth is far more suspicious when it comes to such scam methods. Older people are more trusting. Unfortunately, my grandpa was successfully scammed with this "Grammy scam." The scammer knew the psychology of older people, so it was easy for him to chat my grandpa up. It's always sad when shameless people use the childish naivety of our grandparents.

That's one of the reasons the banks and financial organizations implement anti-fraud systems. For example, our local banks usually set up chargeback prevention products from https://covery.ai/products/ethoca-chargeback-prevention to protect their clients during the transaction process. I hope that technologies will eradicate the very possibility of fraud in the future.

 

[Bearsyzf]

I haven't answered my landline phone in years and no there's absolutely nothing wrong with the phone......... i just don't answer it

 

[MoodyBlues]

Youth is far more suspicious when it comes to such scam methods. Older people are more trusting. Unfortunately, my grandpa was successfully scammed with this "Grammy scam." The scammer knew the psychology of older people, so it was easy for him to chat my grandpa up. It's always sad when shameless people use the childish naivety of our grandparents.

That's really sad. I'm sorry your grandfather got scammed.

I had another one a few days ago; it started just like the one I posted last year, i.e., "Grandma? This is your grandson," but for some reason the *click* came right after I asked "which one?" Talk about disappointed!! I was all set to go to town with him.

 

[no one]

Lately, I've been going with:

(Hometown) police, detective Davis speaking.
A quick hangup is the usual response.

If it's in regards to my auto warranty, I ask if they mean my Bentley, Ferrari, or Lamborghini.

 

[Bearsyzf]

They also have a scam going around with the Apple play cards, so be warned.

 

[rootabaga]

A milder version is a caller wanting to be sure you want to help with [orphaned kids, police/fire personnel, wounded veterans, abandoned animals, you name it] and they’ll send you an envelope for your donation. When they ask if they can count on your help, that’s when I say I’m very concerned about that group/issue, but we always check out the organization to be sure the donation isn’t mostly subsumed by overhead, I know there are lots of scams out there, etc. I finally tell them if they will give me their org name I’m happy to check them out. When I ask how that sounds…I get a dial tone.

I see through these scams easily enough, but I fear many may get suckered in.
Sneaky theft is still theft, but I guess that’s better than getting fleeced or worse.

 

[MoodyBlues]

A milder version is a caller wanting to be sure you want to help with [orphaned kids, police/fire personnel, wounded veterans, abandoned animals, you name it] and they’ll send you an envelope for your donation. When they ask if they can count on your help, that’s when I say I’m very concerned about that group/issue, but we always check out the organization to be sure the donation isn’t mostly subsumed by overhead, I know there are lots of scams out there, etc. I finally tell them if they will give me their org name I’m happy to check them out. When I ask how that sounds…I get a dial tone.

Sounds familiar! I do variations of that myself.

I see through these scams easily enough, but I fear many may get suckered in.
Sneaky theft is still theft, but I guess that’s better than getting fleeced or worse.

Unfortunately, a LOT of money is lost every year to garbage scammers like this, and it's usually older people who are fleeced. It's not unusual to see a story on the news about some man/woman in their 70s, 80s, and beyond who's lost their life savings to a bottom-feeding piece of scum.

Some weeks ago, I had called SoCal Edison to report an outage. (Damn, I hate it when I don't pay my bills! ) The very next day, a call came in with caller ID saying it was SoCal Edison--so I picked up! Oops. Off my guard there for a second. TOTAL COINCIDENCE that this scammer spoofed SCE's name AND i had just talked to SCE the day before. Fast forward to a few days ago. I had logged in to view my Discover card account one night, and while I was there I decided to fart around and look around the site. I looked at their home equity loans and some other stuff, and logged out. The next day, the phone rings and--you guessed it!--caller ID said Discover. Thinking, no way, this can't happen again, I answered it--prepared to take on a scammer. Guess what? It was actually Discover!

 

[puppykickr]

Sounds familiar! I do variations of that myself.


Unfortunately, a LOT of money is lost every year to garbage scammers like this, and it's usually older people who are fleeced. It's not unusual to see a story on the news about some man/woman in their 70s, 80s, and beyond who's lost their life savings to a bottom-feeding piece of scum.

Some weeks ago, I had called SoCal Edison to report an outage. (Damn, I hate it when I don't pay my bills! ) The very next day, a call came in with caller ID saying it was SoCal Edison--so I picked up! Oops. Off my guard there for a second. TOTAL COINCIDENCE that this scammer spoofed SCE's name AND i had just talked to SCE the day before. Fast forward to a few days ago. I had logged in to view my Discover card account one night, and while I was there I decided to fart around and look around the site. I looked at their home equity loans and some other stuff, and logged out. The next day, the phone rings and--you guessed it!--caller ID said Discover. Thinking, no way, this can't happen again, I answered it--prepared to take on a scammer. Guess what? It was actually Discover!

Yup.
That is what scammers count on- mimmicking the behavior of legitimate businesses.

My father stopped doing business over the phone entirely.

He never got scammed, but that never stops them from trying.

So all legitimate businesses are told that no one in the house does any business over the phone.
They no longer call, and when we get calls like that we know that it's a scam.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Yup.
That is what scammers count on- mimmicking the behavior of legitimate businesses.

My father stopped doing business over the phone entirely.

He never got scammed, but that never stops them from trying.

So all legitimate businesses are told that no one in the house does any business over the phone.
They no longer call, and when we get calls like that we know that it's a scam.

Yeah, I stopped answering calls a long time ago, except as outlined in this thread, i.e., when I'm in the mood to have a little fun.

Any call I don't recognize, I just ignore and let it go to voice mail. There my message tells them there's no point in calling back repeatedly, and that the only way they're going to talk to a human being is by leaving their name and number. The ONLY ones who do are legitimate people.

I've had 20+ calls per day, for weeks on end, and I can't explain how annoying that is. Recently, for whatever reason, they've slacked off to *only* about 5-10 per day.