Yet another scam

[phesina]

I just got this phone call, or series of phone calls.. Three or four attempts in which the sound was so garbled I had to ask the person to call me from a different phone. (Since I work as a cat-sitter, I sometimes get calls from people I haven't heard from before but who are looking for a sitter, so I want to hear enough of what they have to say to tell if that's the case.)

Well, the guy just called me from a different phone, and this time his voice was much clearer. His accent was difficult to place and I couldn't tell what country it was from, definitely not anywhere in the Americas.. but the University does get many foreign students so he could have been a potential customer. Anyway, he starts out asking if I have a computer and then saying many computers are being infected with... I said, "I DON'T think so, and don't call me again," and hung up. Darn, I didn't have the police whistle handy!

What fun!

[smokey the elder]

I get calls all the time and I'm on the do-not-call list. If there are many calls from the same number I google them, then if they're clearly not a charity or political entity, I file a complaint with the FTC. This does have deterrent value in that I don't get calls from that number anymore. Filing a complaint isn't too hard.

[Litterati]

I'm going to share a technique that was shared with me by a former colleague. The instant thta scammers begin their pitch just say "Sorry, I don't have a phone". This generally totally floors them and as they try to grasp the illogic you just hang up. Works.

[momcat]

I'm going to share a technique that was shared with me by a former colleague. The instant thta scammers begin their pitch just say "Sorry, I don't have a phone". This generally totally floors them and as they try to grasp the illogic you just hang up. Works.

I LOVE this! What a great idea!!! Do you mind if I share it with my friends?

[Catty1]

There is a do-not-call list in Canada and some companies get around that by basing their calls out of the USA. So maybe people in the US are getting scam calls from companies that base their calls in Canada. It's a plot!

However, a number of call centres are in Pakistan and other non-North American companies which means the laws don't apply to them...

[smokey the elder]

I got the fake summons last Friday.

Friday night I got ten (!!) calls from the same number. There kept being no one on the end of the line. Well my husband caught them and chewed them out royally! I also filed a formal complaint on ftc.gov. I must get 100s of these showing up on my call log. I can't imagine if I WEREN'T on the do-not-call list.

[cassiesmom]

Today I received this scam call for the second time. It was my pleasure to tell the caller I knew full well he wasn't really from the IRS. I got this information from IRS dot gov.
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IRS-Impersonation Telephone Scam

An aggressive and sophisticated phone scam targeting taxpayers, including recent immigrants, has been making the rounds throughout the country. Callers claim to be employees of the IRS, but are not. These con artists can sound convincing when they call. They use fake names and bogus IRS identification badge numbers. They may know a lot about their targets, and they usually alter the caller ID to make it look like the IRS is calling.

Victims are told they owe money to the IRS and it must be paid promptly through a pre-loaded debit card or wire transfer. If the victim refuses to cooperate, they are then threatened with arrest, deportation or suspension of a business or driver’s license. In many cases, the caller becomes hostile and insulting.

Or, victims may be told they have a refund due to try to trick them into sharing private information.

If the phone isn't answered, the scammers often leave an “urgent” callback request.

Note that the IRS will never: 1) call to demand immediate payment, nor will the agency call about taxes owed without first having mailed you a bill; 2) demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe; 3) require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card; 4) ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone; or 5) threaten to bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.

[Karen]

My church organists's husband nearly fell for one of those IRS schemes yesterday, thankfully she managed to convince him to hang up and not give them a penny! She is the one who has always done their taxes, so when someone claiming to be the IRS said they owed nearly the entire contents of their bank account in back taxes, he believed them! They even told him if he hang up the phone without giving them bank or credit card info immediately, he'd be hit with a lawsuit!

[smokey the elder]

Rachel from Card Services has now gotten my cell #...grr. I have unlimited minutes but it's the principle of the thing. With cell phones sometimes you get unusual area codes or exchanges so you can't use the area code or exchange to judge a call. I let most of them roll to voice mail. A lot of phones have a block caller option.