The phone rings. “Hello”. The guy starts be asking if I am [real name]. I agree. I was expecting a delivery, so I assumed it was that. Instead the buy starts in on a long song and dance about how wonderfully they have repaired my vacuum and I can come and get it. Only problem is my vacuum is find and in a closet. I saw our house cleaners use it yesterday.
What are they thinking? That I was so demented that I would believe that I could take the vacuum in for repairs and forget that I had done it. I cannot figure out where this was going but I suggested an anatomic impossibility and hung up.
If you’re like me and live alone, your logic makes perfect sense, but for many/most people they are living with someone else who may have taken the vacuum to be fixed without you knowing,. While it’s easy to go and check to see if it’s where it’s suppose to be, you’d be surprised how many gullible people will think their spouse took it somewhere to be fixed and not bother to check the closet where it normally lives.
My guess is that if you had played along with this scam you would have found that if you paid them a small amount of money they would be happy to drop the vacuum off at your house. You give them your home address, your credit card number, expiration date, and CCV and, as they say, the rest is history. Hanging up was the right thing to do. Unfortunately, there are enough people who get suckered in and then live to regret it.
Hari, did you happen to see the CID for the call (or could you rewind the phone and find it)? I’m just curious if they went to the trouble of spoofing a local vacuum repair shop. If not, that could be a red flag in the future.
So, one morning I call my friend. (Note, he may well be older than you, because his name and address are in The Book. At least they were, back when there was such a thing as a printed telephone directory. Point is, the telephone number is not a state secret.) His wife picks up, and I say, “Hi, is [name] there?” She immediately starts to quiz me to see if I know his full name, and who am I exactly, and it took me a moment to convince her that I was a real friend and actually know him. I can only imagine what kind of calls they get, and how frequently.
I had some fool realtor call me trying to pass off that he’d done business with my deceased mother but couldn’t pronounce her name correctly or have any clue about anything about her. I flabbergasted him for about 5 minutes, had him tied in knots and what sounded like near tears before I told him he hadn’t done his homework and hung up on him. It was bloody satisfying!
I just got a call from a “nephew”. Usual story, got arrested in Ottawa for DWI, spent a night in jail and is desperate for a “loan” to be paid back tomorrow. I asked if it was Sammy, to which he immediately agreed. For the record, I have a niece, Samantha, that we call Sammy, but no nephew. I told him I would call his father and he hyng up.
