I have documented 3 scam calls this week, but there have been more. The latest of which is trying to help me with my car’s extended warranty. I bought my car in 2005 - it doesn’t have any warranty anymore… What I would like is to track these scammers down, then inform the police of their activity, to shut them down.
I have been using reverse phone number search sites, and some “Who Called You” kind of sites with no real success. So, I am putting it out on the straightdope for all;
Are there any good techniques to research a scammer and get information about them?
It’s way too easy to spoof phone numbers. Since scammers are universally overseas, there’s nothing you can do. Either hang up or if you have the time, keep 'em on the phone as long as you can.
Look up scambaiting on Youtube to see how that can work.
I’ll tell you right now, that’s a waste of your time and energy. If you go to the police with your info, I’d be surprised if they’d even so much as take a report. For starters, unless the call is originating in your state, this is going to be federal, meaning the FBI or FTC is going to have to do the investigating. Even then, they’re not. You can go and report all these calls to the FTC right on their website. Millions of people have been doing it for at least 10 years and nothing has become of it.
The biggest roadblock you’re going to hit is that these calls are likely coming from India. Then what? Interpol?
Having said all that, there’s a good CBC documentary about just this. They went and complained to Canada’s version of the attorney general who said something to the effect of ‘we’d stop them if we could find them, but we can’t find them’. The funny thing was the documentary makers had gone to India and tracked them down. Even when they explained that if they could find them, certainly the government could find them and still nothing happened.
TLDR: Don’t pick up the phone and don’t get frustrated over it. The problem far exceeds anything the vast majority of us have the ability to do anything at all about.
Edit: Here’s the doc, it’s a good watch and only about 20 minutes long.
It’s not that hard. In fact, it is useful for some businesses to allow someone to use the business number as their outgoing number.
I don’t know the specifics on how to do it, and if I did, I probably wouldn’t share on this platform, but I do know that my number got spoofed once.
For nearly a week, my phone was unusable due to all the people “calling back” to yell at me for calling them. Changed my voicemail to an explanation that the number had been spoofed and turned off my phone.
As K9bfriender said, it’s not that difficult (apparently). In fact, ‘neighbor spoofing’ even has it’s own name now. That’s when they use a number with the same area code and prefix, specifically so you think it’s in your area code.
IMO, that’s backfired. While I don’t answer random cell phone calls to begin with, I really don’t answer ones that look almost the same as mine.
It’s particularly aggravating for me because I am on furlough due to Covid-19 issues, and I am looking for another job. I am sure that one of the calls that I did not pick up was a company looking for an employee. But, I am not sure that is on-topic.
Thanks for telling me about the documentary. One of the scammers called from Houston, TX. He actually called twice, and used his real first name. I found him on whitepages.com. He is the amateur, however.
Exactly. What did he sound like?
Though I did see a recent video where the scammer was using voice-changing software. He sounded almost American. There was just a slight hint of accent but his speech patterns/choice of words gave it away.
He sounded mexican-american, he left a first name, and his caller-id number was in Houston, TX. He called twice. I told him I was not giving him any money. He hasn’t called back since.
Last December (2019), Congress passed and Trump signed (!) a new law called the TRACED act, mandating that voice telecom providers begin implementing a new-ish caller-ID authentication protocol called “STIR / SHAKEN”. Some descriptions call it the “beginning of the end of spoofed robocalls”, other descriptions I’ve seen are a little more cautious.
(The name, which of course is a typical contrived acronym, is a parody of James Bond, who always demanded his mixed drinks shaken, not stirred.)
Google it, and you’ll find umpteen-hundred articles on the subject. I saw one recently that went into substantial technical detail. Of course, with all those umpteen-hundred cites, good luck finding it again.
So, here are a few examples of cites that I see today:
From something I recall reading in that technical STIR/SHAKEN article (the one that I can’t find again today), it should be workable even against incoming robocalls from off-shore (e.g., India). All calls not originating at a domestic telecom provider must necessarily get channeled into a domestic connection at a point of entry. The requirement for an authenticated caller ID could be enforced at that interface.
IIRC, the article mentioned that at least in North America, Canada is working cooperatively with the United States to build a pan-North-American protocol, and I think Mexico is in on it too.
I’ll call “Maybe” on that. From some of the rules I’ve seen here-and-there about how to file complaints against robocalls or other unwanted telemarketing, the process begins with a local police report. I don’t know what the FCC or FTC or FBI position is, but if you try to get your own telecom provider to take action, the FIRST thing they will want to see is that police report.
So, to be sure, the police won’t take any action, even if they take a report. But you can point out to them that if they take a report – that’s all they need to do, is take a report – you can then take that to your telecom. If you argue that to your local police, you might be able to cajole them into taking a report, even if they do nothing more.
