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I think the reason older people get targeted by these scams is
1. They are more likely to be at home
2. They are more likely to still have a landline which is what the scammers use.
I have picked up more of these calls since I retired. My response to the scammers depends on my mood. Sometimes I just hang up immediately; sometimes I lead them up the garden path but my favourite response is to say that I just have to turn down my cooking and could they hold for a minute. I then leave it for 10 minutes or so. I figure that it is better to waste their time rather than have them scamming some other poor victim.
I put this in retirement because most of these scam calls were targeted towards older Americans. It looks like the Indian phone operators posing as Microsoft tech support, Medicare specialist, or other phony titles are finally being arraigned by the authorities. Has anyone had calls from these people?
Yes. Last year I got a computer virus that said "CALL MICROSOFT SUPPORT IMMEDIATELY" and it was making an insufferably shrill alarm noise, so I fell for the ruse. My credit card got involved. But my bank's fraud division cancelled the payment, once I filed a complaint with them. Then, months later, those people started calling me, saying I was due a refund, so I told them I already had my money back (lol. They had no clue that I was a case that escaped their clutches), and stopped responding to their calls. They were very persistent, every 6 months or so.
I'm glad they're being arrested.
I should mention, that a friend has told me, that he's been getting emails from someone posing as a Medicare official, offering an easy sign-up process with Medicare. I told him not to respond, because it was a scam. He had a friend research it, and they discovered the return email address was connected to a fake business registered in LA, but with ownership located in Nigeria.
BEWARE, beware, beware! The Nigerians are getting much more sophisticated.
I'm also wondering if these Indian call centers banks and other agencies love to hire, might not be coming back to bite us. Think of the thousands of employees who have experience now, with American procedures on how to present themselves over the phone, how bureaucracies work, and so on.
I think I got the one from the IRS. I actually DID have to deal with the IRS about 10 years ago so I know how it goes. There are some pretty funny ones on YouTube where they have the caller on tape and they pretend to play along. One guy told the caller to go to the nearest store and pay by "iTunes" cards the penalty he owed or, certainly it'd be curtains. I know I'm writing in jest but it actually does make me sad and angry that some people who don't have experience in this would send them the money.
DH and I had dinner last night with friends, one of whom recently got a call that his grandson was in jail and needed $2000 immediately to get out, with two people involved, one supposedly the grandson (who is saying "don't call Dad") and one playing the part of the "public defender". Of course granddad was concerned at first but then got suspicious, called his son, who called the grandson, who was in class at school. Problem averted.
This morning we got two back to back calls from people insisting DH had inquired about a back brace. The caller ID numbers were different for the two calls but it was obviously the same crew, probably looking to bilk Medicare. I told them DH and I were not interested in participating in their scam. They did have DH's email address, which I guess he should now change.
I think I got the one from the IRS. I actually DID have to deal with the IRS about 10 years ago so I know how it goes. There are some pretty funny ones on YouTube where they have the caller on tape and they pretend to play along. One guy told the caller to go to the nearest store and pay by "iTunes" cards the penalty he owed or, certainly it'd be curtains. I know I'm writing in jest but it actually does make me sad and angry that some people who don't have experience in this would send them the money.
There is a hilarious video on YouTube (wish I could remember the link) where the joker "victim" being scammed pretends to be "Jed Clampett". He didn't have the $6,000-some the scammer demanded because his money was in the "Commerce Bank', and "Mr. Drysdale" handled it. When asked who did his taxes, "Jed" replied it was "Jethro, Cousin Pearl's boy. He can cipher!" The scammer had obviously never seen "The Beverly Hillbillies", of course. The scammer wanted him to go to purchase Best Buy cards.
"Jed" told the scammer he'd have to have "Jethro" drive him, because he couldn't drive. This perturbed the scammer, because he didn't want another party involved. Couldn't "Jed" call a cab. "Why should I pay for a cab when I have a perfectly good truck parked outside..." He told the scammer Jethro was down at the "SEE-ment pond" with Ellie Mae, and he'd go get him. Hilarious audio of a sputtering old truck.
I dialed the 800 number on the back of my new Discover card to activate it yesterday..my phone went black for a second then came back on..the guy on the other end tried to sell me a $100 gift card for $2.98..I said "connect me with customer service dept please" and his reply was....."they're not working today".....yeah right..I hung up the phone, called the card number back and got connected with the right people that time...be careful of everything you do now a days..
I dialed the 800 number on the back of my new Discover card to activate it yesterday..my phone went black for a second then came back on..the guy on the other end tried to sell me a $100 gift card for $2.98..I said "connect me with customer service dept please" and his reply was....."they're not working today".....yeah right..I hung up the phone, called the card number back and got connected with the right people that time...be careful of everything you do now a days..
Do you think you mis-dialed it? Scary to think scammers are intercepting phone calls.
That's how you get a lot of "fake tech support" popups on the PC - just mis-spell a common URL, like Yajoo or Homail.
I think the reason older people get targeted by these scams is
1. They are more likely to be at home 2. They are more likely to still have a landline which is what the scammers use.
I have picked up more of these calls since I retired. My response to the scammers depends on my mood. Sometimes I just hang up immediately; sometimes I lead them up the garden path but my favourite response is to say that I just have to turn down my cooking and could they hold for a minute. I then leave it for 10 minutes or so. I figure that it is better to waste their time rather than have them scamming some other poor victim.
Nope. I get the calls on my cell phone and on my Vonage (internet) phone which is essentially an unlisted number. They just have computers dialing phone numbers in sequence.
The spoofed local phone numbers make it all pretty annoying. There is no point in blocking the phone number because it was simply picked at random and will never be used again. At this point, I just let the landline go to the answering machine - if it is a legit call, they will likely leave a message.
I did get a phone call about a week ago from an extremely irate man who demanded to know why I had called him and then hung up - I tried to explain that I had not actually called him and he refused to believe me, because my number was on his Caller ID. He refused to believe that spammers could spoof phone numbers and threatened me with legal action. I did eventually just hang up on him, lol....
The same thing happened to me. I tried to tell the lady that I did not call her phone, but she used cuss words that I never heard of...
We get more scam calls all the time. I must be on every call list in the world. It's hard for us because we have a business and people nowadays use cell phones which do not come up on the known calls list and their area codes do not match where they are calling from. We have to answer calls because it might be someone down here on vacation or season looking for one of our services.
About 50% of the time when I answer the phone using the business name there is no one on the phone. My husband will stay on the phone and say hello over and over and over - sometimes getting somebody a couple minutes later. It's always a robo telemarketer.
I've found not answering and waiting for a message works though, most of the dumb calls do not leave a message.
What I don't like is the myriad of faxes I get...because my fax automatically turns on if the line hears a fax tone. Then when I call the number on the bottom to be taken off the list, that number either is perpetually busy or just doesn't answer.
About half my calls on my cell phone are telemarketers. I do not answer if I don't know the number. A few times I did because it was the same number over and over and over and then I was able to push a number to be taken off their list...which worked.
It's a darn nuisance.
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