I think about 1 out of 5 unknown calls I get are non-spam, which is a high enough ratio to keep me answering them. By that point I’ve already stopped what I’m doing, and looked at the phone, so spending another 2 or 3 seconds to answer, and immediately hang up if it is spam, is worth the potential trouble of needing to call back a voice mail and probably end up in phone tag with someone.
Are there still any people out there that feel the need to politely say goodbye on scam calls?
The latest sweepstakes prize scammer really wants the tracking numbers for the $500 in cash I sent him yesterday and the $2000 in cash I sent him today. I explained in a text that one of my workers got bit by a rattlesnake and it’s really bad. We are driving him to the airport for a med flight and the receipts are in the other truck. He wants me to stop what I’m doing and call him about the tracking numbers. He is hard core.
I’ll repeat my anti-spam measure, which works almost all of the time.
If I get a call from an unknown number, I accept the call, wait 5 seconds, say “Hello?” and then wait 5 more seconds, then hang up if I hear nothing. (And usually the call hangs up on its own before that.)
Spam calls are almost always done by a robodialer that will terminate the connection if it doesn’t hear anything for a few seconds. But a real person will stay on the line and respond. I almost never get a real live spam call from an actual person who is there when I wait to speak after answering.
Same here. I need a couple of calls or texts from a spammer before I block, otherwise I’m blocking a fake number that does no good.
I get endless texts from people “offering” to buy our house. I generally just report these as spam and move on, but one time I said, “not interested, and do these cold texts actually work?” They responded that they made $20k the week before and told me to get back to work. I received another text from a different scammer the next week, and this one actually had a dollar amount on it (“would you accept $xxxk?”) I responded with “LOL” and reported it as spam. The number they offered was something like 1/3 what the property is worth, which they would have known by a quick look a Zillow.
I don’t get any phone calls, because the current iOS spam call blocking works extremely well. They all go right to Spam, and nobody ever leaves a message.
The calls my mother was getting was to the landline. Incidentally, about a week ago, the landline number switched from the local phone company (Frontier) to the local cable company (Optimum) and she hasn’t gotten any of those calls. So perhaps the cable company has better screening?
That tells me that they are targeting people who are ignorant and/or desperate; in other words, it’s predatory in nature. Which seems to go hand-in-hand with cold-calling.
This is actuallly what I used to do when I picked up calls from unknown phone numbers. It didn’t seem to trigger more calls.
We were moved to Frontier when Verizon lost their landline business years ago. Frontier was pretty crappy.
Frontier Communications was sold to Verizon a couple of years ago.
Ha! Didn’t know that. We dropped Frontier a few years ago.
“Yes, I would be happy to participate. However, we charge $95 for the first minute, and each subsequent minute, inclusive. How would you like to pay today?” This really gets them pissed off, for some reason. Great for unsolicited text wankers too. If you weren’t on their “do not contact” list, they seem to do this.
Or if you’re good at voice imitation - “21st Precinct. Sergeant Waters” with a good thick NYC accent. They always hang up right away.
Or “Sergeant Peterson, Chicago Police” in a thick Chicago accent. 
A whole lotta years ago, it a very different world than we live in today I went to college & was ‘lucky’ enough to have the floor payphone right outside my dorm room. I didn’t do anything but be polite the first couple of weeks as it took time for everyone to get their own room phone hooked up & service turned on. After a couple of weeks everyone had a room phone…except John. John was a cheap bastoid who didn’t want to pay for one, which meant I because his personal phone secretary.
One day mid-semester it was ringing, so I went into the hall & answered it, “16th District, Sgt. Johnson, how may I help you?”
::Click::
30 seconds later I had just sat down again when it rings again. Lather, rinse, repeat three times.
Then next time it rings, I answer, “Hello”
“Is John there?”
“Yup, I think he’s talking to Sgt. Johnson”
“You @#$%& @#%^#<> @#^&*(+=!”
All those curses made it my turn to hang up.
I don’t even say, “Hello,” but rather just wait. A genuine person will ask hello after a few seconds and we can then start the scammer-dance. If I’m expecting a call I’m gentler but if not it starts with, “Who are you?”
I clicked on something on Facebook and got one of those locked screen things that claims to be from MacAfee or some such saying that your computer is locked and you need to call 1-800-SCAMALOT in order to be able to proceed. CTRL-ALT-DEL got rid of it and I checked with defender to make sure it wasn’t a worm.
Okay, this scam attempt is scary good. Background: A few years ago, I was the editor of a newsletter for a Hawaii association. At that time, Eric was president and Frank was treasurer. These roles are completely out of date, but so is the association website, which has all of us still listed.
The email used by the scammer is fake; I know Eric’s email and that isn’t it. As for the email used for me, it is valid but I haven’t used it as my main address for years. It’s easy for me to believe that a human or AI bot could scrounge it up on the internet, though.
Here’s the email I just got, with a few identifying details changed:
From: Eric@president.org
To: CairoCarol@oldemailaddress.com
Hi Carol, I hope you’re having a wonderful week! I’m currently away from the office and have restricted phone access. Can you handle the newsletter publishing expense on our behalf using either Zelle or wire transfer?
Frank is unavailable to assist, please let me know if you can assist, and I’ll provide the vendor’s payment details. I’ll take care of your reimbursement once I’m back in the office.
Warm regards,
Eric LastName
There’s a relatively new type of scam involving crypto currency trading and identity theft making the rounds. Fortunately, the poor English skills made the attempted ID theft rather obvious so the scammer(s) weren’t able to complete setting up a crypto trading account in my name.
I’ve heard of such scams. Sometimes an employee will get a call from someone pretending to be the company president or other high-level executive and told to buy gift cards, perhaps intended as corporate gifts. I think many times there’s some sense of urgency attached to the request.
“Hey, it’s J. Beresford Tippytoes, your CEO, and I’m a little strapped for cash 'til payday. Can you run down to that Delmar’s Deli on the corner and pick me up some Olive Garden Gift Cards?”
The Federal Trade Commission describes one version of the scam as follows.
The scene often starts with an unexpected text, email, or a call from your “boss” asking for an “urgent favor.” (That emergency? Not real. That person? Not your boss.) They tell you to go to the store, buy gift cards, and send them the numbers on the back. They might even ask for “Google certificates.” They really mean gift cards, but they use different words hoping you’ll engage to find out more.
Even if your “boss” says they need the cards for a company event, slow down and make sure it’s not a scammer trying to steal the money you put on the gift cards. If you’re in this situation, here’s how to avoid this scam:
If you work at a business where it’s plausible for your boss to ask you to randomly grab gift cards to pay someone off, you’re probably already involved in crime.