This has happened a couple of times. Someone or someTHING calls me and says that a pre-approved order was taken in my name. It doesn’t mention a company or anything. It just wants me to press a button to speak with an operator.
I always hang up because I ain’t pressing no buttons because of some anonymous voice on the phone.
I just wonder if anyone else is getting these annoying calls?
That’s nothing new. It’s usually for Amazon, but it’s been around for a while.
The scam, at least the way it’s shown here, is particularly nasty. This goes above and beyond just asking for some banking info to ‘refund’ your money.
Starts around 6:50 (ETA, I see the thumbnail, this is separate from the glitter bomb)
It’s usually for Amazon…sooo, you’re saying it’s not a scam call? Somebody is ordering stuff from Amazon in my name, and Amazon is checking? Why don’t they say Amazon while they’re on the phone?
Oh never mind. I didn’t see this part. Scam it is.
They claim to be from Amazon. It is never actually Amazon.
I meant the name the scammers typically use is Amazon. Likely because Amazon is so big most people (they hope) already have an Amazon account so an accidental charge from Amazon doesn’t sound that far fetched. A scammer could just as easily say there were from Chase Bank or Spectrum or your local utility company and get similar results.
But yeah, it’s a scam. If you’re not sure check your credit cards for unusual activity or find Amazon’s phone number on their website and call them to follow up.
I used to get those calls, but I because of them (and others), I don’t answer the phone without knowing the caller. It is making job hunting a bit of a challenge.
Doesn’t say Amazon so that it can be used to scam in other countries, where there are other big online sellers besides Amazon.
And using an actual company name doesn’t matter – they are targeting really gullible people, and the lack of an actual name won’t be noted by most of them.
I’ve gotten those calls once or twice. If I ended up talking to a live person, I’d tell them that the order was legitimate, placed by me and not to cancel it. That seems to confuse them.
I once got a ping from my bank asking if I had made a big order on Amazon. I hadn’t and said so. They immediately cancelled my card and sent me a new one.
I haven’t gotten any calls like this yet. Lately 100% of the scam calls I’ve been getting are people claiming to be collecting money for the police and breast cancer.
Policeman’s Ball? Policemen don’t have balls.
Also, I think I read this here a million years ago, but when asked to donate to some phony police thing, I like to respond with a very somber “I already donated a brother (or wife or son or mom)”.
I get the Amazon, ‘iPhone just purchased’, one all the time.
Lately, I’ve gotten two calls of young men pretending to be my grandson/nephew. Nice try, but NO!!!
A long time ago I got a PM on facebook from a college friend (that I hadn’t seen in a few years). She was on vacation and her husband got mugged so they have no money to get back home and wanted to borrow a few hundred dollars and they’d reimburse me when they were back in town. I asked a few preliminary questions, but at some point I had a feeling something was wrong and I found that facebook allows you to report the profile of “a friend claiming to be on vacation but got mugged and needs money to get home”.
At that point, 99% sure it was BS, I said “What did you do to your college dorm room that made it unique?”. Very simple question and she, or anyone that knew her, would have known the answer. As soon as I said that, “she” unfriended and blocked me, presumably so I couldn’t warn other people and then reported MY profile meaning I was locked out of facebook and couldn’t even put up a message on my own page.
*Her roommate moved out early in the year so her boyfriend (now husband) moved into her room. The ‘unique’ thing was that they pushed the two beds together. Their room was mostly bed. Every time someone saw it, they’d say ‘Geez, you guys must fuck like rabbits in here’.
Not a phone call, but I got an email last week from “amzn.com” wanting me to follow a link to verify my account information. Yeah, sure. That one got deleted real quick.
I got the same message on email claiming to be an acquaintance ex-coworker in the same jam. I knew this person in a hi, how are you way, but for her to even think of me as someone to run to in an emergency was so ridiculous I just deleted the post without even a ping of a hesitation.
Damn, I got a call like that last week, but I just figured he was an idiot who called the wrong number, because I don’t have kids.
We are currently vacationing in the Caribbean. Yesterday I got a voicemail from my bank asking me to call. I googled the number and…damn, it was my bank.
I went from thinking it was a scam call to thinking some scammer had somehow managed to clean out my account and stuff was bouncing. My bank has never called me.
I texted an employee and asked her to call. Turns out it was no big deal. I have one account that I seldom use. I usually get mail once a year asking me to withdraw/deposit a dollar to keep the government happy, and they thought they’d call me and save the stamp?!
If I may mention email, my credit card company emailed me that if I accepted another card from them, I would be able to purchase a name brand product I was looking at on the web the day before.
There is a Do Not Call registry that is respected by legitimate organizations. However:
There are some exemptions to the Do Not Call rules. Because of the limits to FTC’s authority, the Registry does not apply to political calls or calls from non-profits and charities (but the Registry does cover telemarketers calling on behalf of charities). Also, calls from legitimate “survey” organizations are not covered because they are not offering to sell anything to consumers.
I used to get occasional calls from what I’m fairly sure based on brief conversations are “real” police charities (or at least third parties fundraising for real charities). I had a couple of discussions with the callers pointing out that whatever the merits of their charitable organization, since most unsolicited calls are scams, a responsible organization should not use this method. Similarly, it’s a terrible idea for a legitimate financial institution to use a contact procedure that involves phoning you and then asking you for personal information “to identify you”.