TL;DR: I received a scam call this morning, played along, was given address to
send a check, called police.
They started by asking if my TV was on and what was the name on the remote
control. After I gave them a name of a random cable company they told me to
turn off my TV and they would upgrade my cable TV service. I have never
had cable TV. While they were “upgrading” they asked me for my name and
zip code. I gave them a fake name (Harry Katz) and a zip code of a city in the
next county. They then gave me a long spiel about how much better my TV would
be and that I could now access 10 additional chanels. After the “upgrade” was
completed I was transfered to a “manager”.
The “manager” thanked me for being a good customer and mentioned they they
would give me a thirty dollar discount on my bill for the next 12 months. They then
asked for my checking account number and of course I wasn’t going to give them
that. I asked if I could mail a check instead and was told yes. I thanked them and
they told me who to make out the check to, the amount, and gave me a
mailing address.
They thanked me again and asked if I had any questions. I said “Yes
I do. How much money do you make scamming people?” There was no
reply, just the click of a phone being hung up.
After thinking about it for a while I decided to call the police. I had written down
the address and was able to google the phone number of the police in that city.
I spoke with an officer who looked up the address and found no complaints
were on file for that address. I would guess the adress is a collection point
for the checks sent in by the victims. The officer asked me a few more questions
before we ended the call.
Anyway, that’s the story. I still have the address - it’s in a city over 2,000 miles
away - and have been thinking of sending something as a joke.
Any suggestions? It would have to be something non harmful, of course.
Some of the jobs I’ve seen advertised by scammers are as package recipients, presumably for goods purchased using stolen credit cards. It’s possible that the address in this case is also that of an innocent third party.
It’s a scam, I get that that means they may say any BS to confuse you but presumably they needed your bank acct info to send you your discount; how did that then turn into you sending them a check for something?
I knew from the start that this was a scam and played along just to waste thier
time. They problably wanted my bank account info so they could create fake
checks and attempt to cash them.
When they asked me for my checking account number I asked if I could send
them a check instead. They agreed to this and gave me the info to put on
the check and the mailing adress.
Obviously, I’m not going to give out my bank info or mail them a check.
I once got a “supervisor” to say that all my computers are affected. After I asked her if that includes the really old ones which have no Internet connection, she hung up and I haven’t received any other calls since.
Yeah, these scammers often have some other unsuspecting dupe working for them under some false premise like “I’m overseas but have a business in the US and need someone to collect payments for me”. Said person cashes the checks or acts as the recipient for the Paypal/Venmo/etc then buys crypto to send to the scammer and gets some percentage off it. Sometimes there’s a relationship angle at play as well, finding suckers to fool into thinking you’re dating them then asking them to help you with this.
That’s not to say no one is fully aware of the scam and happy to profit off of it. But I’ve seen a number of videos about less savvy job seekers or lonely hearts getting roped into being mules.
We’ve been through this many times. Checks are still used in the United States to a much greater extent than other developed countries, especially in Europe.
I want to congratulate the OP on keeping the scammer on for so long! I can never find the right combo of words or level of cluelessness to keep them from hanging up.
Please don’t send feces through the US mail. Glitter is okay, I suppose; just make sure the parcel is sealed sufficiently to guarantee that it cannot release any of it in our sorting machinery.
