Wednesday, my dad got a phone call from an “Employment Recruiting Center” saying that I had put him down as a reference for a job. Dad’s pretty smart- he didn’t give them much info, but told them how fabulous I am and took their number for me to call them. I have applied for lots of jobs lately but you don’t give your dad as a reference! I have not lived at home in 16 years. I haven’t talked to him in person since his message about this, so I don’t know what exactly they told him.
Then yesterday, I got a call at my work from National Delivery Service, saying that I had a package to be delivered to my husband and they needed to know which apartment. They told me it was a delivery of some electronics from a nearby town. I haven’t ordered anything. I told them to leave it on my back porch, and they wouldn’t accept that but were unclear as to whether or not they needed a signature. It felt weird- why would my husband order something and not tell me, then put my work number as a contact? They also asked to verify his date of birth, then gave mine. I corrected them. I gave them his phone number and asked them to call him to get it delivered. They did call, and he routed them to my work address to deliver today. Nothing came.
I called the number the guy gave my dad and got a voicemail with little info on it. I didn’t leave a message.
I decided to do some research, and found this page which indicates that the two are linked. I hope that link worked- it’s showing up funny.
So, does anyone have thoughts on what this might be? If they have all this info, what do they need to talk to me for?
I vote skeevy.
I use an alternate middle initial when I order anything online, lets me know if I actually ordered it or if something is wrong. I also will frequently use an alternate birthday when I join shopping sites so I am not giving out my real birthday. I have a spamcatching email that I also use only for shopping. [and use a green dot type visa with my fake info so it is not linked to my bank account.] I am sure my mom never knew her surname was jingleheimer-schmidt … =)
Hey. That’s my name, too 
Do people shout at your mom when she goes out?
Its a scam, they trawl craigslist postings for contact info.
Of course it’s a scam, but how did they get my dad’s phone number? Different state, different last name.
Buying into people search engines like Intellius.com can reap a bunch of info, including relatives names and previous residences. I’ve used them for background checks for rental property. Even the cheapest option brings up a wealth of data.
but what are the scammers trying to accomplish?
They want to know her birthday and apartment number, but what will they do with that info?
I suppose they could be targeting hennadancer for identity theft. But I thought ID theft was usually done by data mining computers, not by people who make multiple phone calls to several different family members and then try to connect the dots. That seems like a lot of work (which has not succeeded in this case). Why target hennadancer specifically?