“Hi Tripler, this is Joe Bag O’Donuts from the Associated Press. Do you have any comment on the book that was just recently published detailing your account of events?” – random phone call from Moriarty, NM.
I just got the above phone call on my cellphone number. He couldn’t be any more nebulous even if he had Neil DeGrasse Tyson in the room. I strongly suspect this is a scam of some sort, but I’d never heard of one like this before. What raises my hairs is that the caller used my first name (when I only answered with a “Hello,”) and it’s an in-state number calling my work cellphone number. Obviously, I declined knowledge of any book, or any account of anything, and told him he’d had the wrong number.
Anyone else get calls like this? Is this some sort of evolution of the IRS phone scam or something?
I don’t know of any other Triplers out there. Although this cellphone number used to belong to a “Jerome,” who has been in some hot water with the law. I keep getting calls from couriers and collections people demanding to speak with him. This is the first time someone’s called directly for “Tripler.”
I wasn’t thinking that fast; I should have!! Conversely, I could say that I am the inspiration for the Bourne Identity. Or maybe a different book…
Tripler
… maybe “Action Comics.” Yeah, that’s a true account of things.
My default answer to these kinds of questions is “I believe that whatever three consenting adults, an inflatable doll, two cucumbers and a feather duster do in the privacy of their back yard is no business of the police.”
I’ve had my data stolen before–most recently with the huge OPM data breach. And my SSN and a business travel card were used within days of flying back to the States to try and open up a Dell computer account [sub]Dell Credit called me to verify, I declined[/sub].
But there are too many coincidences; they called my work cell number (which I don’t give out freely) and asked for me by name. I might be making a mountain out of a molehill, but the buzzers are going off that this is a scam of some sort. I just can’t figure out the motive, or the scam.
Tripler
“No Sir, I am not buying forty copies of Vibe magazine.”
Do you work for the government? Is your agency involved in some controversy, and the caller was referring to “your [agency’s] account of events”?
My quatloos are still on your name being the same or similar to the person the reporter really wanted, and the reporter bungled a records search. If you haven’t already, try googling your name and some common variants/misspellings. If you have access to a periodical search, look there too. You might have access to something like EBSCO Host through your library’s web site. You might be surprised to find some unsavory character with your name out there. And phone numbers, emails, etc., have a way of spreading farther than you expect.
(I thought my first+last name was very uncommon, but it turns out a guy with my exact name lived about 10 miles from me. He’s a little younger than me, but if you were looking for me and you only had an idea of the metro area I lived in, there’s a good chance you’d get his information instead of mine.)
Yes, I have government ties, but nope. . . no controversy here. And I got the feeling the reporter was speaking of my version, not that of any agency or organization.
The thing is, I’ve had this unlisted cellphone number for almost two years; I haven’t been published, and I’m not that high on the food chain [sub]yet[/sub] to be contacted by any reporter. I did have an LLC at one point, but that was closed down immediately when I took the new job (was extant for all of 13 days–quickest folding of a company ever!). This cellphone number was never associated with that LLC.
There was someone with my name here, and I have gotten calls for him about a year ago. He had just retired, and someone here at work called me on the internal landline network. Come to find out we share first and last names, but not middle names. That caller was looing for “E.” and I’m a consonant. They were cool though. But that was through an internal phonebook website, on a landline. Not on an unpublished cellphone.
That’s possible. Especially if Jerome is in collections. Maybe the “reporter” wanted the real Jerome to slip and give up his whereabouts so they could serve him? :shrug:
This is how spies work in the 21st century. They call a predefined set of phone numbers and ask the code question. You failed to respond properly, so they’re probably coming after you.
Don’t wait until the last minute to fill out those organ donor cards.
We’re tracking them, and they’re seven blocks away. We’ve got a nanny with a stroller that’ll cross in front of them in the next block, so you’ve got two minutes. Grab your Go Bag with the fake passports and 50,000 in Euros, and go out the back NOW.
This isn’t the pre-arranged code. I get a call with four DTMF tones in sequence hinting at me to tune into the proper shortwave band (the only available one in town here, due to topography), and listen for the fourth number in the second string. This’ll tell me whether or not to proceed to the dead drop. None of this ‘posing as a “reporter” crap.’ That’s just some effin’ amateur hour stuff right there.
Already done. I have this temptation to speak in a gravelly, Liam Neeson voice, if that “reporter” calls back: “We’re going to donate your organs. . . punk!”
I’m not supposed to get on a bus with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, am I? If so, we’re all dead–no traffic in this town moves at 55 MPH.
I already have. It’s underwritten by USSOCOM and the 24th STS.
Seriously, I’d asked one of our Security folks about this, and her ears perked up, “I’ve never heard about that one. They asked for you by name?.” She suggested it was some sort of live-person phishing scam.
Tripler
I still don’t know anyone from Moriarty, NM.
