Phone Scam alert - can you hear me?

[featherbedder]

New scam to have you authorize any thing by saying do you hear me you say yes when answering phone, they tape you then it can be very costly. Now a new one, they ask how are you feeling as soon as you answer phone, if you say all right same means same thing. So be aware many crooks. One of calling #s is 331 234 3216. Bill

[Rich W]

I don't answer if I don't recognize the number. They can leave a voice mail. If they persist I block the number. When I still had a land line, if they responded with "how are you today", I knew it was spam and probably a recording. If you're in the mood to mess with them, ask them to repeat something whimsical back to you, like Mary had a little lamb. Recordings will just keep dancing around it. Best thing, however, is just don't answer. Then Google the phone number to see who is calling, although even that seems to be getting risky.

[Mollysdad]

Now, I don't answer the phone unless I recognize the number.
I used to rely on NoMoRobo, but when the scammers learned to spoof numbers, you can block a hundred numbers and they'll just invent more.
I'd get calls from a guy who asked, "Is Paul there?" If I said no, he'd just say, "maybe you can help me" and launch the recording (he made). So now, if anyone asks for Paul, I say, I'll go get him", and set the phone next to the radio. Amazingly, when I pick the phone up, after a few minutes, he's gone.

[Belbein]

I have two defenses. First, if anyone calls and asks for me by my legal name, I know it's a sales call, because I don't use my legal name … the only one who ever used it is my mother, and as of 7 months ago, if she call's me I know I'm in bigger trouble than merely a telemarketer.

Second … (a) If I'm busy I just hang up and (b) If I'm not busy, I ask them for their names, phone numbers, return phone numbers, what company they're with … and they're gone. But I hope I have added a little angst to their day.

My particular favorites are the ones who call and tell me that they are, for example, Detectives with "Your Country's Taxing Authority." They're great fun. I ask questions like: Since I'm a new immigrant, can you tell me the name of my country's taxing authority? What's your badge number? What's your supervisor's name? Can we meet face to face? And eventually, if they're really persistent, I ask them if their mother knows they're calling a foreign country to scam people. I'm a sick puppy, I guess, but you get your phone where you can.

[rmkrum]

Me, if it’s not already in my contact list, which gives me a name for the number, I usually don’t answer. If I happen to answer, and it’s a scammer, the number goes on the block list. That means I’ll never even hear it ring.

I love the ungrammatical ones supposedly from social security or the IRS. They get laughed at. Most unidentified number scammers that don’t leave a voicemail get on the block list immediately.

The real fun is when it’s my number calling me. That’s when I really know it’s a scammer that doesn’t have the brains to configure the caller ID spoof software correctly.

[SilverWind]

Originally Posted by featherbedder

New scam to have you authorize any thing by saying do you hear me you say yes when answering phone, they tape you then it can be very costly. Now a new one, they ask how are you feeling as soon as you answer phone, if you say all right same means same thing. So be aware many crooks. One of calling #s is 331 234 3216. Bill

How do you know this?

[ITSNO60]

I just keep saying heloooo??? in my best Jerry Lewis voice and they hang up. Or if I am drinking a soda I answer with a big burp, then they usually say "hello" and I give a couple more burps then they hang up.

[r carl]

I just answer detective Dan Mathers speaking.

[overlander63]

I once kept a "tech support" scammer on the phone for nearly a half hour, a half hour that he couldn't scam anybody else.
I had another scammer trying to sell an extended auto warranty get mad and hang up on me, because he said I was being dishonest.

[featherbedder]

Another scam. Calling computer prob. virus etc. or from microsoft then want authorize remote access to computer.

[Mollysdad]

"No hablo English!"

[uncle_bob]

Hi

I'd be *very* interested if anybody actually has a fully doccumented example of someone successfully ripping a person off by using *only* the word "yes" from a typical phone call. The only time I can see it being used would be as part of a court case ....

My point being that without credit card / banking / account information, there isn't much they can do with a single word. If they already *have* that sort of information, the lack of a single word is not what's stopping them from ripping you off ....

Bob

[drbrick]

Welcome to the world of poor and abused technology. We get anywhere from 2 to 5 calls a day, 24 hours a day. Our call display usually tell us it comes from some number in the USA. No name, just number and usually a State. Some times there is just "unknown".

The phone companies have no way of screening. What they say is basically they provided the means in which people call, they don't control the incoming, that up to the user (us).

Now what we do is the "double click" (answer/hang up) We never speak into the phone if the person is not identified on our call display as someone we know. At night we unplug the phone in our bedroom.

Since 90% of the calls are "robo calls" they don't leave messages. The odd one's that do we just erase.

This is now part of living in the 21st century - so take some advice from Paul of Tarsus, "Learn the art of being content in all things". He was speaking of things out of his control and that would now include, well, telephone abuse.

[Mollysdad]

Robo-calls take all the fun out of harassing the caller.

I suspect many of the spam calls this season are political surveys.
I used to be called by Quinnipiac U.
Nice people and I enjoyed talking to them. But their questions were often invalid. They asked "If/then" questions.
"If candidate A had the cure for cancer would you be more likely to vote for him?" Then I'd see on TV where a CBS/Quinnipiac survey said 75% favored candidate A. (OK my example was over the top, but you get the idea.)
Now even surveys are automated.
My phone company has "Potential Spam" as the caller ID on most calls.

[mrfixit51]

Originally Posted by featherbedder

New scam to have you authorize any thing by saying do you hear me you say yes when answering phone, they tape you then it can be very costly. Now a new one, they ask how are you feeling as soon as you answer phone, if you say all right same means same thing. So be aware many crooks. One of calling #s is 331 234 3216. Bill

After you say hello, just speak any other language but english , and it will get them everytime. They seem to be trained in english only . I know french ,so a "bonjour" and a few other words and then i get a click. Then i do a block number, if there is one. Works for me.

[Hittenstiehl]

Current Ongoing Scams

IRS Error in Your Filing
College Loan Payments
Computer Technical Help
Microsoft / Apple
You Have a Warrant
Grandma I'm in Jail
Electrical Company
Publishers Clearing House
Lottery Winner
Auto Warranty.....
......and probably a couple more I forgot. And yes there is verified documentation :-)

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by mrfixit51

Then i do a block number, if there is one. Works for me.

To avoid giving out personal information that I don't want floating around, I make sure my outgoing voicemail message stays as the factory default, with no information about me at all in the message. Because if a robocall rolls over to voicemail (which happens automatically after zero rings if the number they're calling from has been blocked) I don't want them recording "Hello, this is (my name), I can't answer right now," and finding out just exactly who owns my unlisted number.

[nvestysly]

We are old-fashioned in our use of a home telephone and have a land-line because our cell phones don't work well at our house. We don't want to pay for caller ID and other services because until recently we didn't have a need for those services.

For the last year or so we sometimes receive 5 - 6 calls per day with some sort of "This is so and so, can you hear me okay?" or "Blah, blah, blah, how are you today?" etc., etc. One aspect of this that puzzles me is we sometimes receive the same call twice in a day, certainly multiple times in a week.

Syndicated radio talk show host Clark Howard recommends that you do not respond to these phone calls in any way. Don't say "okay," "alright," "fine," or anything that can be considered saying okay or yes. He also recommends that you not follow though with pressing this button or that button to "opt out" as that may be used to indicate answering some sort of question or at least indicating you are a real, live person on the line.

I'm puzzled by how all these callers get around the do-not-call list law that was passed many years ago. There must be some sort of loophole in the law for "surveys" or maybe the robo companies just ignore the law.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by nvestysly

I'm puzzled by how all these callers get around the do-not-call list law that was passed many years ago. There must be some sort of loophole in the law for "surveys" or maybe the robo companies just ignore the law.

A computer by itself cannot break the law. As long as it's only a robocall, there is no one to press charges against.

[rmkrum]

They don’t get around the law. They simply ignore it. The do not call list has no teeth, and the phone companies don’t care either. It’s going to take changes to federal law to start resolving this idiocy.

The problem with an affirmative answer is that it can lead to changes directly to your phone bill. They already have an account they can drag money out of when you answer the call. Phone company is complicit in this scan.

Another current scam is someone claiming to do home remodeling, has a crew in the area doing work, then asking if you need to do anything. I get two to five calls a week like that.

I just let unrecognized numbers ring, if they don’t go to voicemail and leave a message, I just block them on the spot.

Messages that are obvious scams also get blocked. Hopefully my phone won’t run out of room for blocked call entries!