What is with all of the scam callers today?

[Dr. T is an alien]

I got a bunch of roboscam calls today. One from a Turkmenistan number called 5 times today, one from the Netherlands called at least 3 times, and one from Columbus, OH called my cell on my commute home. That last one pissed me off the most as it is the same robo call highlighted here. I can so see some people getting panicked about that one.

Oh, and an e-mail about a $2.3M dollar inheritance due to being the sole surviving family member of a "family member" dying in a plane crash got through my spam filter today as well.

Seriously, WTF is up today? Did some agency that investigates or regulates this shit get defunded today?

[Paul]

Get NoMoRobo for your cell phone and don't worry about them anymore. www.nomorobo.com

[Dr. T is an alien]

Dec 19, 2018 20:23:20 GMT -5 Paul said:

Get NoMoRobo for your cell phone and don't worry about them anymore. www.nomorobo.com

I am aware of this service. Did you not click the link I provided?

[Paul]

Dec 19, 2018 20:29:45 GMT -5 Dr. T is an alien said:

Dec 19, 2018 20:23:20 GMT -5 Paul said:

Get NoMoRobo for your cell phone and don't worry about them anymore. www.nomorobo.com

I am aware of this service. Did you not click the link I provided?

No, because I wasn't interested to click on it.

[Ryback on a Pole!]

When I lived with my dad and brother we used to direct them to the farmyard department.

As soon as one of us said "I'll put you through to the farm department" we all gathered around the phone and made animal noises at the scam caller.

[bibboid]

Normally I just ignore calls from numbers I don’t recognize. Today I was helping out in the warehouse and was right next to the radio. For the six spam calls I got today, I just hit answer and set my phone next to the speaker and let them listen to music.

[GuyOfOwnage]

When they try to scam people in the 18-40 age bracket, it's hilarious because their attempts at deception are just so laughably bad. One of my personal favorites was a guy with a thick Indian accent and incredibly broken English, claiming to be from the IRS (or, as he pronounced it, "Iris"), claiming that we owed money and we needed to pay them back in iTunes gift cards, complete with instructions on how to acquire said gift cards from our local 7-Eleven and then give them the codes. I'm pretty sure I was on the floor by the end of that call.

But when they try to pull the wool over the eyes of older folks who are less tech savvy and can be more easily manipulated as a result, that's when these people really piss me off.

[Deleted]

I've gotten about 18 calls this past week asking me about my auto insurance (I don't own a car or have a driver's license), thanking me about my stay at a hotel (I haven't stayed at a hotel that wasn't a frequent visit by IMPD patrols since 2001), saying I qualified for student loan forgiveness (I qualified for FAFSA), and no matter how many times I request to be removed from the "Do Not Call" list, I get re-rolled back into another list of the robo-call section.

It's always hilarious how I wind up getting a human being every now and then and how they automatically hang up on you when you give them a response they do not want to hear, like your age or pay scale because you're not part of the scam target. I thought we had laws passed to discourage robo-calls.

[Paul]

Dec 19, 2018 22:21:17 GMT -5 GuyOfOwnage said:

When they try to scam people in the 18-40 age bracket, it's hilarious because their attempts at deception are just so laughably bad. One of my personal favorites was a guy with a thick Indian accent and incredibly broken English, claiming to be from the IRS (or, as he pronounced it, "Iris"), claiming that we owed money and we needed to pay them back in iTunes gift cards, complete with instructions on how to acquire said gift cards from our local 7-Eleven and then give them the codes. I'm pretty sure I was on the floor by the end of that call.

But when they try to pull the wool over the eyes of older folks who are less tech savvy and can be more easily manipulated as a result, that's when these people really piss me off.

Sometimes younger people fall for that scam too, though:



A lot of young people are just as ignorant as older people.

[GuyOfOwnage]

Dec 19, 2018 22:38:53 GMT -5 Paul said:

Dec 19, 2018 22:21:17 GMT -5 GuyOfOwnage said:

When they try to scam people in the 18-40 age bracket, it's hilarious because their attempts at deception are just so laughably bad. One of my personal favorites was a guy with a thick Indian accent and incredibly broken English, claiming to be from the IRS (or, as he pronounced it, "Iris"), claiming that we owed money and we needed to pay them back in iTunes gift cards, complete with instructions on how to acquire said gift cards from our local 7-Eleven and then give them the codes. I'm pretty sure I was on the floor by the end of that call.

But when they try to pull the wool over the eyes of older folks who are less tech savvy and can be more easily manipulated as a result, that's when these people really piss me off.

Sometimes younger people fall for that scam too, though:



A lot of young people are just as ignorant as older people.

That's...kind of sad. With the tech-heavy world that kids have grown up in, I'm genuinely surprised that younger people fall for it.

[Paul]

Dec 19, 2018 23:06:42 GMT -5 GuyOfOwnage said:

Dec 19, 2018 22:38:53 GMT -5 Paul said:

Sometimes younger people fall for that scam too, though:



A lot of young people are just as ignorant as older people.

That's...kind of sad. With the tech-heavy world that kids have grown up in, I'm genuinely surprised that younger people fall for it.

It has nothing to do with technology. It's just social engineering that they use to scare them. College kids don't have a lot of real world experience to know how the real world works.

[GuyOfOwnage]

Dec 19, 2018 23:26:12 GMT -5 Paul said:

Dec 19, 2018 23:06:42 GMT -5 GuyOfOwnage said:

That's...kind of sad. With the tech-heavy world that kids have grown up in, I'm genuinely surprised that younger people fall for it.

It has nothing to do with technology. It's just social engineering that they use to scare them. College kids don't have a lot of real world experience to know how the real world works.

The scammers that got those kids must be a lot better at their job than the ones that I've personally dealt with, then, because I honestly can't picture those people scamming even the most naive, inexperienced person on the planet.

[Evil Homer]

I get that these scum bag scammers can be very pursuasive , but asking for gift cards& itune credits as payment should be a dead giveaway to anyone any age that somethings not right

[GuyOfOwnage]

Dec 20, 2018 0:20:04 GMT -5 Evil Homer said:

I get that these scum bag scammers can be very pursuasive , but asking for gift cards& itune credits as payment should be a dead giveaway to anyone any age that somethings not right

I feel like a lot of elderly folks are very much fish out of water when it comes to dealing with today's technology, so I can totally buy them falling for someone who's persuasive enough. Same with the younger and inexperienced, I didn't really see it before but I suppose that is possible as well. What I really don't get are people falling for scammers who are utterly terrible at their job (and I've seen quite a few of them). Like I'm supposed to believe you're with the IRS when you can't even pronounce it correctly?

[Ganon83]

We gave up on our landline a few months ago. Literally the only reason we could justify still having it was if my 97 year old grandmother had a health scare in the middle of the night. Otherwise the damn thing would ring about once an hour during the day for scammers or telemarketers

[Ultimo Gallos]

We got some neighbors that fell for the Nigerian Prince scam. Was 14 years ago. Neither of them is very smart. The husband got the normal NP email. Went to town the next day to get the money order. We saw him asked what was up. He told us how He was gonna get 100 million bucks. I told him it was a scam,was told I was full of shit. So I went over to his house and googled it. He saw the results and thanked me.

3 years ago they got the "Your Windows computer is infected"call. Gave the person on the phone remote access to their computer. And of course their computer got f***ed.

But then the husband is 77 now. And still works cause his retirement check and his wife's disability check isn't enough to fund their cigarette habit. He smokes 3 to 4 packs of Doral ultra light 100s a day. And she smokes 2 packs a day.

She also believes that the "feds" spy on you thru your cell phone. So will only us it to text.

[The 1Watcher Experience]

I get the middle eastern telemarketers all the time. I get the robo calls too. I just assume they’re also based in the middle east using the robo gimmick to mask themselves. The telemarketers get very pushy. For months I would politely ask them to put me on their do not call list but they’d still call back. I’ve taken to busting out a variety of wrestling imitations when they call. They get to talk to the likes of Dusty Rhodes, Randy Savage, Roddy Piper, Vince McMahon, Terry Funk and a few others. Dusty is my usual go to. I like to talk very fast using his voice to confuse them. I’m at a point where I’d rather have fun with it than get stressed over it. I can’t stop them so I guess I have to roll with it. They keep calling. I doubt any of them are wrestling fans wanting to hear more. I’m thinking that I must be on some kind of list they just call over and over because they get paid whether we fall for their scams or not. Whoever finds a way to permanently block all telemarketers is going to be a billionaire overnight.

[Deleted]

My mother got hit by one of these clowns a couple of years ago. She called some website to "fix" her computer because it was acting weird.
These assholes were doing something and the wife just hit the power button. The guys started freaking out. "We can't see your screen!"
I pretty much cursed these guys out for such a scam, got them to refund whatever she paid (even double checked with the bank to make sure it went through), then the wife went to her bank and cancelled mom's account.

Yeah mom is hurt she can't spend her own money without having to go through the Mrs., but it's for her financial protection.

[BarmPot]

Dec 19, 2018 23:26:12 GMT -5 Paul said:

Dec 19, 2018 23:06:42 GMT -5 GuyOfOwnage said:

That's...kind of sad. With the tech-heavy world that kids have grown up in, I'm genuinely surprised that younger people fall for it.

It has nothing to do with technology. It's just social engineering that they use to scare them. College kids don't have a lot of real world experience to know how the real world works.

I might have to change jobs and become a Wallet Inspector.

[YAKMAN is ICHIBAN]

I don't answer any phone call from any number that isn't in my contact list, period.