Phone Scam alert - can you hear me?

[kb0zke]

I rarely answer calls from numbers I don't recognize, but there are exceptions. Our MH is for sale now. The ads do not list a phone number, so I get a PM or other message that I trust. I then contact the potential buyer with the answers to the initial questions. IF it looks like a legitimate buyer I'll give them my edress and phone number. If I hear back very shortly, fine. If not, then back to not answering unknown numbers.


We used to get a lot of calls from where we used to live because our phone numbers are still from there. I just block those calls right away now, and it has been a couple of months since the last one. After all, there are only 10,000 possible numbers for any given area code and prefix (ABC) DEF-xxxx, and many of those are legitimate numbers.


When a call from an unknown number DOES come in, I usually let the voicemail greeting take care of it. That greeting is not in English. Those who really know me have a good idea of what they are hearing and leave a message.


Remember the college loan scam from a few years ago? We still had a landline then, and kids in college. I would answer those unknown numbers in another language. There was usually a few seconds of silence followed by the caller hanging up. I wonder if they thought they had managed to call the wrong country.

[Belbein]

Originally Posted by CanyonMan

Why would they need your particular voice?

Several different laws, including the Telemarketing Sales Rule and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, require telemarketers* to obtain express informed consent from the consumer before obtaining payment information. If the telemarketer gets sued by either a private party** or a consumer protection agency, the first thing the suing party does is to demand to get proof of "express informed consent"--which is a recording of your voice saying "Yes." *** So it's not that they need your voice, exactly: they need your consent ... which is generally in your voice.



-----
*Particularly those using "robocalls."
**Private parties have rights under some conditions to sue for unwanted robocalls, both under federal law and some state laws. There are statutorily defined "damages," so you don't have to prove that you were injured, other than a violation of the law and the peace and quiet of your home.

***As I said earlier: No one is going to accept merely a "yes" as "express informed consent." But if a telemarketer is slapdash or dishonest enough to try to get just a "yes," then they are going to be willing to take a chance that they can't be found and can't be dragged into court.

[Belbein]

Originally Posted by ROBERT CROSS

I knew all along that guy was a crook..."can you hear me now" 🤓 Bob 🇺🇸

Wait--do you mean to tell me that a guy paid as an actor/spokesman to speak the lines written by the company trying to hawk cell service in a multimillion dollar ad campaign doesn't really have my best interests at heart?

[featherbedder]

Just had another scam call 5 min ago. New version of can you hear me. Recording caller states has important message for states your name then asks if it is you, if you don't reply asks several times again, then asks if not you, you don't reply, then asks if you several times again. My answer was not very PLEASANT. I then disconnected call. Had to answer as was Fl area code and wife is in Fla for Learning Disabilities Convention.

[BobnGayl]

Robo calls are automated calls made by a computer someplace to a sequential series of numbers. They are extremely cheap since nobody is getting paid to make the call, which is why they are so prevalent. The computer has no idea if anyone is at the number being called or not or if it's even a active phone. If you answer, then the call is logged as being "real" and goes into another database. Presuming this is a correct statement for how things work, then the smart move is to never answer your phone and confirm to the computer you are a real live human being. I've spent a lot of time trying to get my in-laws to understand this but thus far have been unsuccessful. This worries me because they are prime candidates for being ripped off.

We let all calls go to the factory default voice mail unless the caller is identified as someone we know. If we don't answer and the call is real, the caller can leave a voice mail and we will get back to them. Playing around with spam callers may be fun, but you are giving them far more information than necessary. Just don't answer! My 2 cents anyway.

[Mollysdad]

Originally Posted by ROBERT CROSS

"can you hear me now" 🤓

"No hablo Ingles."

[rmkrum]

And then the rest of the constant scam calls will be in Spanish. I get enough of them in Spanish as it is, here in Southern California. Even get spam mail in Spanish all too often.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Originally Posted by Mollysdad

"No hablo Ingles."

Originally Posted by rmkrum

And then the rest of the constant scam calls will be in Spanish. I get enough of them in Spanish as it is, here in Southern California. Even get spam mail in Spanish all too often.

Hi, my last name is supposed to be Italian. But many people try to translate my last name as being Spanish. So I have been called, and people have come to my door, speaking Spanish to me. [this was when we lived in Southern California] I sometimes answered in Korean and that really caught them off guard. Since our move we no longer have a land line and that has helped a lot. My wife and I get calls on our cell phones with our area code and same prefix. We never knew anyone with the same area codes and prefixes so we know those a spam calls and never answer them.

[Rocinante]

We use Verizon’s free Call Filter app and Nomorobo, which costs $20 per year, per line. These two together stop most, though not all, spam / scam calls. Like others, we answer no calls that still come through with the same area code and prefix as our numbers, we answer no calls from blocked numbers or 000-000-0000, and rarely answer calls from toll-free numbers.

[Mollysdad]

Originally Posted by Rocinante

We use Verizon’s free Call Filter app and Nomorobo, which costs $20 per year, per line.

Once the scammers learned about spoofing caller ID's, NoMoRobo became worthless. You could block a thousand numbers and the scammers still have an infinite number of choices.
Lately, I just don't answer.

[rmkrum]

I especially don’t answer calls that display my own number as caller ID!!!

Yup, the spammers have done this. Dead giveaway. If a call is not in your contact list, it’s possible to set an iPhone to take it directly to voicemail. That cuts it down a lot. A legit caller usually leaves voicemail. If not, I figure they didn’t really want to talk to me.

[ROBERT CROSS]

This may make you feel a bit better....Go Mark & Friends go.
\

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsLJZyih3Ac

Bob
🇺🇦🇺🇸🇺🇦

[zapper]

Articles of Incorporation require you use a legal name, address and phone #, e-mail address. I have a statutory agent to gets most of my junk mail. I use RoboKiller app, which is not perfect, on my cell, but does weeds out 100+ phonies a week, plus SMS messaging. My business landline is a VOIP internet phone that block all except existing/previous customers. At $14/mo is cheap enough. That leaves internet mail scams, ah the real bane of my existence. I can bock up to 500 max. So every day I have to go through my in box, look at and weed out individually every e-mail scam, knowing full well that its a waste of time. But.........it need to be done.