What if I scam a telephone scammer?

Factual Questions
1

My daughter just sent me accounts of 2 scams running through the populace.

Now suppose I get one of credit card scams In the process the caller is very adept at wheedling the sucker’s credit card info from him - just enough so that he simply thinks he’s protecting himself.

Suppose I spot this right away, laugh at the scammer, and with a legitimate-sounding Arab accent, tell him that I am, in fact, a terrorist, and "…the only things I buy with Visa card are explosives. And, you dumb American sonofabeech, I stole my cards. So I don’t care if anyone charge extra on them! Just keep your eyes on the <fill in a terrorist target in NYC>, asshole!!!" It won’t be there next Friday.

Then I hang up.

So now the scammer gets worried and calls the FBI from a pay phone with an anonymous tip, including my telephone number.

Could I be in deep doo doo?

2

Alas, you would already be in trouble because the Feds are “listening” to your conversations already for key words like “explosives”. Please wait, security will be with you momentarily.

3

But what’s the crime - lying to a thief?

4

There was a guy a few years ago who sold audio tapes of pranks he played on telemarketers. The one I remember was when he received a call from a carpet cleaning company, so he asked them if they could come over right away to remove a lot of blood from the carpet. I think he strongly implied that he’d committed murder. The carpet cleaning company sent the police over to his house, but were amused when they heard the complete story from him.

5

This is the Federal Government we are talking about here. What constitutes a crime is irrelevant. :smiley:

6

I suggest you consult your attorney before doing anything like that. IANAL.

7

So, to sum up: You want to declare yourself a terrorist in no uncertain terms on the phone, pointedly threaten to blow up a specific building, and then claim it was all a joke? Good luck, tell us exactly how it went once the FBI finally lets you communicate with the outside world.

8

I am afraid that it is rather similar to making a hoax phone call saying there is a bomb on an aircraft

  • or as some foolish people have done, saying that they have a bomb in their luggage.

One thing to remember is that telephone scammers know (or can find out) exactly who and where you are.

If you are interested in playing with scammers this site might amuse you:

They specialize in making 419 scammers lives … confusing.

9

the OP says he is trying to scam a scammer–but there’s a mistake here:-it doesnt matter if the person on the other end of the phone line is a scammer, or the OP’s best friend.

The OP isn’t “scamming a scammer”–he’s just being a jerk. (or worse, actually).

10

I think our President would probably call him a new-cue-lar tourist send him to Gitmo.