Yeah - anywho used to work, as did simply googling it. I think Anywho used to be owned by AT&T but clearly is not, any more. When I tried it just now, I got a bunch of unrelated names, showing on a bunch of scammy-looking URLs. I didn’t follow any of the links. Most were from Djibouti, some were from Lesotho, and one was from Antigua and Barbuda, judging by the top-level domain.
For fun, I plugged my own cell phone number into one search site (whitepages dot com, I think). It’s got me pegged as 10 years younger than I am, and apparently I’ve racked up a few criminal or traffic violations.
I declined to pay to find out just who I was or what I’d been up to.
I am a victim of a check washing scam. I had a check go missing written on 5/10 for about $200. I paid online but I always check all my accounts weekly and I was keeping an eye out for this check. Anyway, it was cashed for $3910. I pay extra to get check images so I checked it and it’s clearly not my handwriting. They left the signature and the memo line but rewrote everything else including rewriting the same date. Already spoke to the bank and will be reporting to police and postal inspector. Still makes me mad. I only deposit checks in the mailboxes right outside the post office and try to do it right before they pick up. Short of going into the post office and handing it directly to a clerk there’s not much else I can do for those bills that I can’t pay online.
Wait, you get a call from an Unknown Number, and your first reaction is to answer it?
You must have more free time and fewer people to talk to than I.
(Damn, that subjective case sounds hoity-toity, doesn’t it?)
If it happens to be a business or person I know, they can leave a message, and I may even pick up before they’re done.
Sometimes, if I’m bored, I’ll answer an unknown caller. A couple of weeks ago, she claimed to be from my electric utility. She claimed something about a change to my billed amount. I asked her to verify my account number, so she reeled off something that might be a real account number. I said, “So sorry, that’s wrong.” (Note that electric service is part of my rent, so I don’t even have an account with the utility.)
And then two days ago, they called again, this time to offer a discount. I said, “No, thank you” and then stayed on the line, mostly because I was curious what they would do. She chatted with someone else in Hindi for a bit; I assume because that wasn’t the response they expected, and eventually they hung up.
Infuriating, isn’t it? We got hit for over $16K, as noted in the OP. And they’ll never catch the guy because it was a fake name/address. By the way, close that checking account. Your forger is still out there and he still has your information.
That said, sometimes out of curiosity I’ll answer. I know I shouldn’t.
Last week, I did. Didn’t say anything. Was met with a very confused “Hello?”. Turned out to be a high school friend, whose number was outdated in my contacts, LOL. But the vast majority are spam at best.
That’s why I only wait a few seconds. That pause is reasonable if it’s a real person but for some reason glitches out the auto dialer. And I wait a few more seconds after my greeting, if nobody says anything I know it’s an automated service and I can hang up.
If it’s a real person all they know is that I answered, paused briefly then started the conversation, like someone having to set down a pen or otherwise situate themselves before talking; it’s normal enough that nobody has commented on it at least.
Let’s put some of the responsibility back where it belongs, with telephone companies allowing the spoofing of phone numbers. If a phone company offered the option to block all spoofed numbers, I would seriously consider switching.