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Post by fullmahina on Apr 5, 2019 22:50:43 GMT
I don't because I've read the more you pick up, the more it registers as a being a number worth calling. Not sure if that is true. I don't think so---can't detect any uptick in calls after I mess with them. But maybe it's because I end the calls with "I'll have to call you back after I talk to my son---he's the chief of police here." Sometimes my son is a federal agent. Depends upon my mood. I have a land line because reception here is horrible. Dropped calls, texts showing up days after being sent. Very few people have my cell number but I still manage to get crap calls via mobile. One unusual oft-repeated call seems to originate in Los Angeles and consists of a recorded message. It's a woman speaking Chinese with lilting Chinese music playing in the background. Another is one warning me that this is a "final call" about my car's extended warranty. Yeah, whatever---both get immediate hangups.
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Post by zazzles on Apr 5, 2019 22:53:26 GMT
The best way to call me happens to be my cell phone because I have no other phone. Not at home and not even at work. I give my cell number to a select few at work and only answer when I know they were going to call. Work pays me back for my monthly cell phone bill so I don't mind. I haven't had a home phone in about 15 years. Yah, I know lots of younger people do that. Many of us oldsters are just to used to having a “land line”—even if it is coming across the Internet these days instead of a pair of copper wires in the good old days of POTS. There have been times I’ve considered getting rid of phones and email altogether, figuring non-emergency business can be conducted by dropping a letter in the U.S. mail and in an emergency people can drive to my house and ring my doorbell. But then I don’t have kids or grandkids or, really, any living relatives or close friends anymore that I have to worry about.
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Post by zazzles on Apr 5, 2019 22:55:40 GMT
There was an article this week in the Washington Post about how bad the problem has gotten, and most of the major phone companies now have apps to help manage it. It has gotten so bad that the major telecom companies are cooperating on a joint venture to develop a new signaling system which will allow phone service providers to verify that the caller id for a call is legit before they pass the call through to their customers. Eventually this problem will be solved. Then all the scammers will find some new way to make everyone’s lives a living hell.
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Post by fullmahina on Apr 5, 2019 23:14:55 GMT
Like so many irritants in life, the solution to scammers is simple.
IGNORE.
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Post by itsrad on Apr 5, 2019 23:39:01 GMT
I was visiting my parents and my mom picked up a call. Apparently her "grandson" had been arrested and needed her help. So the conversation went like this:
"Grandma, it is your grandson and I need your help. I've been arrested and I need money"
"Which grandson"
"Don't you recognize my voice, grandma?"
"Oh right, its you. Well, I hope you can find a good lawyer."
And she slams the phone down.
I laughed so hard. BTW, she does have two grandsons, but she knows better than to fall for that stuff.
Sadly she has a friend who bit and ended up at Western Union ready to wire money. Fortunately, the WU clerk stopped her. Handed her a phone and said "call your grandson." And of course it was a scam.
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Post by linda72 on Apr 6, 2019 0:13:48 GMT
We get many calls for a "medical grade knee or back brace". We don't need either and this is a Medicare scam that pays out millions of dollars rather than trying to crack down on this fraud. It makes me angry that there are scammers and it makes me even madder that Medicare just pays the claims! medicare scam
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Post by fullmahina on Apr 6, 2019 0:59:50 GMT
"Grandma, it is your grandson and I need your help. I've been arrested and I need money" "Which grandson" "Don't you recognize my voice, grandma?" "Oh right, its you. Well, I hope you can find a good lawyer." And she slams the phone down. Yeah, that would be me.
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Post by diva49 on Apr 6, 2019 1:04:13 GMT
"Grandma, it is your grandson and I need your help. I've been arrested and I need money" "Which grandson" "Don't you recognize my voice, grandma?" "Oh right, its you. Well, I hope you can find a good lawyer." And she slams the phone down. Yeah, that would be me. Oh, YES!!!
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Post by limefan on Apr 6, 2019 20:12:43 GMT
My cellphone number was spoofed. The other day a lady called me and apologized that she did not answer when I called. I nicely told her that I did not call because I was working. She told me she gets calls for her dad who is not well and was afraid that was who was calling. We chatted a bit. I was glad I did not answer in my "mean, quit calling me" voice. We got a message on our voicemail last week. All the guy said "DON'T CALL ME AGAIN" in an angry voice. I figure our number must have been spoofed. I had another guy call me after supposedly I called him. He left a message saying he had been sick and was sorry he did not answer when I called. I felt bad for him. I thought about calling him back to tell him I had not called, but I did not want to disturb him like the scammers had.
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Post by Lyn on Apr 6, 2019 22:35:42 GMT
I have both my landline and cell registered with "National Do Not Cal Registry". If anyone calls that is asking for a donation of any kind, medical, police, fire department, or I just do not want them to call again, I just tell then do not call again or I will report you to "National Do Not Call Registry", and I do report them if they call again, that stops the call immediately!
Also I can block calls on both my phones.
Lyn
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Post by itsrad on Apr 7, 2019 0:13:19 GMT
I have both my landline and cell registered with "National Do Not Cal Registry". If anyone calls that is asking for a donation of any kind, medical, police, fire department, or I just do not want them to call again, I just tell then do not call again or I will report you to "National Do Not Call Registry", and I do report them if they call again, that stops the call immediately! Also I can block calls on both my phones. Lyn The problem with this is that if they are spoofing the number, there is nothing to report. For instance, when they spoof the local high school, I can't really report the high school to the National Do Not Call Registry. Sadly for now, the scammers are ahead of the system.
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Post by zazzles on Apr 7, 2019 1:30:27 GMT
I have both my landline and cell registered with "National Do Not Cal Registry". If anyone calls that is asking for a donation of any kind, medical, police, fire department, or I just do not want them to call again, I just tell then do not call again or I will report you to "National Do Not Call Registry", and I do report them if they call again, that stops the call immediately! Also I can block calls on both my phones. Lyn Yah, the people causing the problems are blatantly violating the law; usually from foreign shores. There are massive call centers in India, for instance, that do nothing but make these calls and try to scam people. And that’s not the only foreign country from which they operate. So the Do Not Call registry does absolutely no good.
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Post by zazzles on Apr 7, 2019 1:32:56 GMT
limefan, it is very unusual for the “professional” scammers to use live numbers. When calls come in and you answer only to find nobody there and a quick hang-up, those are robotic dialers dialing to determine which numbers are not in service. Those out of service numbers are the ones they will use as the caller ids for their scam calls. The fact that someone is making calls using your number as the caller id means they are a rinkydink amateur operation.
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Post by limefan on Apr 7, 2019 12:52:24 GMT
limefan , it is very unusual for the “professional” scammers to use live numbers. When calls come in and you answer only to find nobody there and a quick hang-up, those are robotic dialers dialing to determine which numbers are not in service. Those out of service numbers are the ones they will use as the caller ids for their scam calls. The fact that someone is making calls using your number as the caller id means they are a rinkydink amateur operation. Thanks, Zazzles. Good to know. I wondered how that all worked.
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Post by zazzles on Apr 7, 2019 15:49:46 GMT
Thanks, Zazzles. Good to know. I wondered how that all worked. After writing that I read an article through Apple News about one particular individual who lives (well) in Florida who is the largest known robocall operator in the U.S. He was identified through a huge investigative effort by one employee hired by a travel site operator because in some of the scams he ran he used their company name as a lure. Through the investigator’s efforts the FCC was able to identify the individual who was dragged before a congressional investigative committee and raked over the coals, then filed about $120 Million by the FCC. Of course his view is that HE has been victimized, can’t afford to pay the fine, and is dragging out the who procedure with lawyers and appeals. The article did go on and say that the public proceedings created much publicity and stripped his anonyminity, causing his address and phone numbers to be public. And as a result, he has received much unwanted communications through people visiting his home in an exclusive gated community, calling him, and sending nastygrams through the U.S. Mail. I feel so sorry for this guy. NOT!
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