Scam callers? Fuck off!

[ChloeTzang]

Probably the same reason the IRS was wanting to talk to my wife about a tax bill. Did you know they take Apple gift cards?

Yes they do seem to mix things up. I got one saying the CRA was after me (Canada Revenue, the Canuck version of the blood sucking leeches we have) And telling me they took I can’t remember what gift cards but it wasn’t a US one. They were actually so good I believed it for about thirty seconds until it clicked they were talking CRA and not IRS and then I did a reset. I do enjoy keeping them going and seeing how many totally idiotic questions I can ask. Some of them are really good at coming up with answers on the fly but others, well, you can tell they’re junior. My record is a couple of hours before they gave up. I was actually sitting their writing while I drove to the store, got the card, started to drive home, crashed my car and injured myself and pleaded for them to call 911 because, you know, broken bones and blood, before I started choking and gargling and they finally hung up. My husband was rotflhao. I thought I did really well and it was a lot of fun. I really do recommend it as a hobby if you have the time.

 

[davion2308]

Me

I solve the issue with the simple expedient of never answering the phone. I have a cell, my wife has a cell, we text to communicate to each other and no one actually calls me unless they have texted me first to call me.

It's laziness, though, not security.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Oh... I almost forgot about this one. There is a guy trying to sell his house here in Houston. The only problem is he doesn't seem to know his own cell number. I keep getting calls from realtors and people looking to buy his house. I swear I have blocked every number in Houston to get rid of those calls.

I have tried talking to the people on the other end about where they found the number but they don't seem to want to tell that.

Next move is to get their company name or their name and phone number and then tell them I will suing their ass for not checking the do not call site.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

The main ones we get are "I understand you have been in a car accident that was not your fault?"

This was a bit of a problem when we had had the car written off in an accident that was not our fault - the claim got dragged out for at least six months longer than need be, as everything had to be done by snail mail. Apparently it's a huge problem for car insurers as everyone hangs up on them all the time.

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

The most persuasive, and the crookedest ones I've fielded have been from companies insisting we have a PPI insurance claim on the Big-Four UK banks and they'll get the refund for me; back in the 80's the mortgage companies in the UK went crazy demanding exorbitant Payment Protection Insurance from prospective mortgagees. This practice was eventually found to be both illegal and coercive, so the banks were made to set aside billions to repay people they'd defrauded with bogus and unnecessary PPI payment demands.

This is ripe territory for the scammers, I had one giving me plausible details of the mortgage we'd taken out, the amount of PPI we'd paid, and how much we were due as a result. One small problem. Hubby's family have owned this villa and land since 1890, and we've certainly never taken out a mortgage on it, the family hass never needed to, yet these characters had full and plausible details of all the PPI payments we'd made, to whom, for how long, and who owed us a refund.

When I pointed this out to the brainless girl who wouldn't shut up and just kept parroting her spiel, she actually said that the refund fund was worth billions and they never really verified claims fully, they just wanted it all to go away, so what was the harm in claiming anyway?

I hung up at that point, because it had gone from yanking a telemarketer's chain to discussing wire-fraud, and I wasn't going to stick around for that.

 

[Jada59]

I get tons every day.

 

[oggbashan]

The main ones we get are "I understand you have been in a car accident that was not your fault?"

...

My response has been:

"I have 33 years no claim bonus. When was the accident?"

 

[AloneTooLong]

Do I really want to believe this is from PayPal (which I haven't used for 15 years)? Just as irritating as those 'robo calls'.

Email removed. Please do not post email addresses to the open forum. - AH Mod

 

[R. Richard]

I'm really busy right now, just give me your number and I'll call you back.