SCAMS

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John From Detroit

John From Detroit

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 12, 2005
Posts
28,752
Location
Davison Michigan
Two Scams that have come to my attention, Both oldies but making the rounds again.

I got a call from a 202 area code (Washington DC) claiming to be the IRS telling me of a warrant for tax fraud out for me.. SCAM, 100% SCAM.. There is a post on Facebook today that also contained a 202 area code number. .DIFFERENT than the one I got called from but.. Well the IRS will not call you to tell you there is a warrant.. THEY WILL SHOW IT TO YOU, personally, with handcuffs attached (To you).

The other is a letter I got;  Condgradulations you ahve wone 1,3225,000 dollars. just send us a processing fee.. NOTE this came via US mail. And it went out this morning by US mail as well.. TO THE OFFICE OF THE POSTAL INSPECTOR.. Yup, it is a violation of Federal law and postal regulations to ask for a processing fee if someone wins a prize.  Sorry scammer. but expect a knock on your door in the near future.. Complete with warrant and handcuffs.
 
Wells Fargo just admitted they opened another 1.4 million "fake" accounts without customer approval... talk about a scam!!!
 
John From Detroit said:
Two Scams that have come to my attention, Both oldies but making the rounds again.

I got a call from a 202 area code (Washington DC) claiming to be the IRS telling me of a warrant for tax fraud out for me.. SCAM, 100% SCAM.. There is a post on Facebook today that also contained a 202 area code number. .DIFFERENT than the one I got called from but.. Well the IRS will not call you to tell you there is a warrant.. THEY WILL SHOW IT TO YOU, personally, with handcuffs attached (To you).

The other is a letter I got;  Condgradulations you ahve wone 1,3225,000 dollars. just send us a processing fee.. NOTE this came via US mail. And it went out this morning by US mail as well.. TO THE OFFICE OF THE POSTAL INSPECTOR.. Yup, it is a violation of Federal law and postal regulations to ask for a processing fee if someone wins a prize.  Sorry scammer. but expect a knock on your door in the near future.. Complete with warrant and handcuffs.
Click to expand...

I've gotten both of those in the past.  My favorite line for a reply on the one about winning a certain amount of money as soon as I send the processing fee.....

Deduct the processing fee out of my winnings and get it in the mail!  8)
 
A guy in my office frequently gets the fake US Bank e-mails saying there has been several attempts to log in to his account, etc..etc.. Click here to log in.
He goes to the fake link which asks for his user name and provides a dandy expletive and leaves it at that.
I haven't gone that far....yet.
 
The emails that  we thank you for your order seem to have morphed into here is your refund for xxxxx. It's getting to where you aren't safe opening any email you weren't already expecting despite knowing the sender.

Ernie
 
if you ever have any doubt send me the money and I will let you know.......
my friend runs a BBB and gets the scam calls to- even when she says who she and where they are calling they just keep at it. many times she has received a call saying the spouse is buying money cards to pay the back taxes and one time stopped the guy at the counter just as he was going to pay for them
 
I have just recently been receiving emails from what seems to be Amazon stating my order could not be shipped because of a problem and to open the attachment. When I hover over the email it is not from Amazon at all but someone trying to get me to open and get info. My company has been running security seminars and things to look out for and it definitely pays because these scums try every which way to get your information.
 
I've gotten a half dozen of the "IRS" calls in the past month. I never answer a call from a number that I don't already have in my contacts list. If its a legit call, they can leave a message. 95% of the incoming calls are scammers who don't leave messages. To my surprise IRS scammers do leave messages, with call back numbers. The other folks that are bold enough to leave a message as "Card Services". The iPhone message transcription function, as spotty as it is, is great as I can tell at a glance that its bogus and I don't have to listen to even 5 seconds of their BS.
 
Was discussing these at Coffee this AM and some of the others at the table got the IRS call as well.

Oh and when you get a LETTER like the one I got (Congradts you won big send us processing) the proper response is to take the letter and the envelope it came in, everything that was in the envelope. back to the post office and ask them to forward to the Postal Inspectors. YO umay have to pay for postage. or not. I did not.

Then your authorized agent (The postal inspector) will deliver the Process (legal not fee) for you.
 
I received a text the other day with a fraud alert from Wells Fargo regarding my debit card. I was to call the phone # listed. Problem is...I have no account at Wells Fargo and don't own a debit card of any kind. Out of curiosity, and since they obviously had my cell phone #, I decided to call the number. It was very disturbing because the answer on the other side sounded exactly as if Wells Fargo had answered the phone. It then asked me to enter the debit card # I was calling about.
Of course, I didn't enter anything and hung up. Because it sounded legitimate and real, I wonder how many people really do enter their card number?
 
Lately I've been getting calls about lowering my credit card interest rate.  The calls all start with someone asking for "David" (no one here named David).  They expect you to say that it's a wrong number, and then they will offer to help you.  I've taken to saying "I'm sorry, David isn't here.  May I take a message?"  This causes them to sound confused and say they will call back later.  I think I'm going to try telling them that David recently died, just to see what their response will be.
 
There is also one that involves Facebook. 

Scammers research a family through Facebook postings, they find out names and cities, come up with a home phone and call an elderly member of the family ... usually a Gramma.

They tell Gramma they are one of her grandkids and they have been arrested and need bail money right away. 

Gramma always helps out her grandkids . 
 
If i don't answer the phone my answering machine picks up and gives a message of 1st the 3 beeps, then says the number has been disconnected. It is repeated 5 times. Friends that know us simply call our cell numbers. I am happy the number of SPAM calls has decreased over the last 7 months. Found the audio on Google and recorded it to the machine.

Cheers
 
I've had that "Hello Grandpa" pulled on me a number of times, with an obviously adult male voice. I've also had the IRS thing, usually with a very grave-sounding voice telling me how serious a situation it is. Some days I want to answer the phone (if I answer) with, "Grand Central Station" because I get so many calls.  Then there are the ones who want to extend my warranty and the ones who are from member services, or credit card department or tech services (trying to tell me there's something wrong with my computer), and even a cheery sounding female voice trying to tell me I've won something, perhaps because I've "stayed at their resort."

Usually the caller ID doesn't even come close to matching who they say they are (if I listen long enough to find out), and sometimes is blank, or I've even seen a phone number of 000-000-0000. And when away from the house I may come back to several "messages" on the answering machine that are silence except for an odd clicking occasionally.

There are more, but...
 
I don't get any scam phone calls or any spam emails due to the fact I keep my number and email address private and only give it out to those that truly need to know it. I have changed both of them several times when I ended up with too much junk. It is amazingly easy to change your email. You can go from [email protected] to [email protected] in a few seconds and then send an email explaining it only to people you want to be in contact with. Then you can monitor both accounts for a month or so until you stop getting email of any substance at the old email address, then drop it. Getting a new phone number and telling only your friends and people you do business with is a bit harder, but the results are worth it. It only took me about ten years to convince my sister to get a Gmail account and stop getting a hundred pieces of spam a day. I don't understand why people keep putting up with this stupid assault when it is so easy to change it.
 
One thing LEGIT police departments may show up as all zeros.  But of course the scammers know this

Title 47 Seciton 227 says among other things it is illegal to "Spoof" a phone number
Also to make a call for the purpoise of delivering a recorded, or computer generated voice message without prior approval
Also to make a sales "Cold call" to a cell phone, a Senior Citizen's residence, A business or any number on the DO NOT CALL LIST.

Yet they do it all the time.

NOTE THe law does not give the government enforcement power. It is up to YOU the consumer to sue the jerks, if you can identify them.

NOTHING prevents the FCC howerver from identifying and publishing the names and addresses of the scammers/spammers and I wish they would do just that. Then we the people can sue them into oblivion.
 
I don't get any scam phone calls...due to the fact I keep my number...private and only give it out to those that truly need to know it.
Click to expand...

Obviously you don't have a landline, Tom. We keep our number private, too, but the robo-dialers don't need anything except to increment the number and dial again.
 
Larry N. said:
Obviously you don't have a landline, Tom. We keep our number private, too, but the robo-dialers don't need anything except to increment the number and dial again.
Click to expand...
You are correct, I don't have a land line. So why would anyone have a land line in this day and age. Must love scammers.
 
Tom---Because our cell phones don't work in our underground bunker that is buried beneath the fake house in our "over 55" gated community.
 
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