Me: Hello?
Caller: Hi - this is your nephew calling.
Me. Hi - which one?
Caller: Guess.
Me (picking a random name that doesn’t belong to any of my nephews): George?
Caller: Right! Now I need your help.
Me: I hope it doesn’t involve money.
Caller: Unfortunately it does.
I hung up at this point, so I didn’t hear a bail bond story or something similar.
I got my first two text scams in the last two weeks. One was from PG&E warning me that my electricity was about to be turned off. The other was from USPS, who couldn’t read the address on the package they wanted to deliver, but fortunately they knew my phone number. Oh, did you know that USPS uses a hotmail address?
Man, they aren’t even trying anymore. No screaming or panic by your putative relation, all said in a monotone no doubt. “Yeah Auntie I’m in a jam can ya bail me out thanks…”
My MIL called me, a couple years back, asking “Where is your son right now?”. Mentally thinking he meant HER son (i.e. my husband) I said “He’s downstairs”.
“Oh good. I just got a call claiming to be your son”. IIRC from the call, he addressed her as “Grandma” (which is what he calls her; there’s an argument for using a cutesy name like “MiMi” or the like). She tried verifying he was who he was by asking “what’s my favorite animal”, and he said “Cats” which was a safe guess (and happens to be true). Not sure what else twigged her to the fact that it was a scam. I don’t remember whether the caller gave my son’s name, either; I’m sure some grandparent scammers have enough info to be able to provide that.
“My son” was claiming to be in a nearby state, one which he could plausibly have been (though he was not; he was at college in our home state).
Good point! And along the lines of “MiMi” versus “Grandma”, it’s not a bad idea to have some answers set up in advance that are NOT true. e.g. your favorite pet is a capybara named Mister Barky von Schnauzer or whatever. This would prevent even a diligent scammer from being able to come up with the correct answers.
You guys know all you are doing is tormenting some slave who will be beaten for wasting the master’s time. Please stop. You are not as funny as you think you are. Just block and move on with your lives.
Would you like to expand on this? Are you saying that the individual scammers aren’t worth bothering because the profit goes to someone else? Because, if so I most strongly disagree. These people are predators, and even if they share their profit with others, it’s at best a comparison between the pirate robbing you as opposed to the pirate captain that pointed them at your ship. They’re both reprehensible criminals, and if someone wants to tie them up in knots, and take time away they could be going after the NEXT innocent, I’ll cheer them on even if I won’t do it myself.
John Oliver had a long segment on this, including interviews with a couple of slaves who escaped. People are lured with promises of legitimate work, their documents are seized and they are given scripts and told what to do. If they fall out of line they are tortured. They no more make money than American slaves shared in cotton profits. The people making money never see your oh so witty responses.
Seriously, the episode is on YouTube. It’s eye opening.
