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Opinion on a potential scam
03-19-2021, 06:27 PM
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#1
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Upstate SC
Posts: 294
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Opinion on a potential scam
We used to live in the Chicago area, now in South Carolina. We still have phone numbers from Illinois. Today, DW started getting slammed with robo calls from the Chicago area (over 20). Each call is from the same town, but different numbers. She did not answer the majority of the calls. She did pick up on three calls, did not say a word, but listened. The gist was, there was a $700 challenge on her Amazon account. Please call this number to resolve. I know it is a scam. We did check her accounts, the credit card account associated with Amazon, etc. Nothing there.
What could they be trying to obtain? Their persistence is annoying!
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Don't sweat the small stuff! And realize, it is all small stuff!
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03-19-2021, 06:48 PM
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#2
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Southern California
Posts: 3,999
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They are going to ask you for a lot of personal information and then try to steal your identity and use your credit cards, checking account, and possibly try to obtain consumer loans in your name.
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03-19-2021, 06:54 PM
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#3
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 13,145
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Not potential. Is a scam.
__________________
Have you ever seen a headstone with these words
"If only I had spent more time at work" ... from "Busy Man" sung by Billy Ray Cyrus
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03-19-2021, 06:59 PM
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#4
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Upstate SC
Posts: 294
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Any thoughts on how to stop the calls? Or do we let them run their course, until they start targeting someone else.
__________________
Don't sweat the small stuff! And realize, it is all small stuff!
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03-19-2021, 07:24 PM
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#5
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 8,417
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Mom (age 91) got a similar call here in Boston yesterday. And she doesn't have a computer.
I told her that trying to get anyone at all on the phone from Amazon was next to impossible under any circumstance so.....
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Living well is the best revenge!
Retired @ 52 in 2005
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03-19-2021, 07:29 PM
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#6
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Chattanooga
Posts: 3,893
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Been there, done that, it is a scam.
__________________
Earning money is an action, saving money is a behavior, growing money takes a well diversified portfolio and the discipline to ignore market swings.
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03-19-2021, 07:34 PM
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#7
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 13,227
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brdofpray
Any thoughts on how to stop the calls? Or do we let them run their course, until they start targeting someone else.
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Set a custom ringtone for everyone in your contacts, and a different default ringtone for anyone else who calls. I found an app to make it easy to set a ringtone for my contacts. I made the default a very pleasant piece of a song I like so when I hear it I don't interrupt what I'm doing to answer, and it doesn't bother me. So I can tell right away if a call is coming from a contact or not.
If there's a time you are waiting on a callback from a doctor or a vaccine clinic, you might have to answer and find it's one of these calls, but usually I just let people leave a message if it's a legit call.
You can also get a spam blocker but so many of these calls are spoofed numbers with the area code and next 3 digits matching yours. That actually makes it easier for you since you probably aren't expecting any calls from Illinois anymore, so you can also look at your phone and not answer.
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03-19-2021, 07:36 PM
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#8
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 13,227
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In other words, you can't stop the calls, but you can keep them from bothering you.
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03-19-2021, 11:07 PM
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#9
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2008
Location: No fixed abode
Posts: 8,765
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RunningBum
Set a custom ringtone for everyone in your contacts, and a different default ringtone for anyone else who calls. I found an app to make it easy to set a ringtone for my contacts. I made the default a very pleasant piece of a song I like so when I hear it I don't interrupt what I'm doing to answer, and it doesn't bother me. So I can tell right away if a call is coming from a contact or not
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So does that mean the ringtone for your contact list is annoying so you'll answer it quickly?
J/k. I do the same thing. Like the OP I no longer live in the area code of my phone number. So if I get a call from that area code (excepting contact list numbers) I reject it immediately. On very rare occasions I'll answer out of curiosity, but without exception they've been spam calls.
As far as the original "potential" scam, it's a scam.
__________________
"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." - Anonymous (not Will Rogers or Sam Clemens)
DW and I - FIREd at 50 (7/06), living off assets
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03-19-2021, 11:33 PM
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#10
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Spending the Kids Inheritance and living in Chicago
Posts: 17,095
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Google , on an android phone, has this screening feature.
Sometimes a phone call rings and it says "Possible Scam" , pretty helpful.
I can even push a button if I'm unsure, and google will announce to the person (paraphrase) "This person is screening all calls so state your name and reason for calling"
A doctor's office was calling, so I pushed accept and answered.
Another time it was a scammer, so their auto dialer (I think) responded to Google's AI , that they would take me off their phone list.
I still pushed the button "report scam"
__________________
Fortune favors the prepared mind. ... Louis Pasteur
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03-20-2021, 06:07 AM
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#11
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Mid-Atlantic
Posts: 2,676
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Until we can get SHAKEN/STIR authentication to be required of all phone providers, we'll keep seeing caller ID spoofing attacks like this. (Although it's possible that they obtained a bunch of local numbers through Google Voice, spoofing is much easier, and people are more likely to trust local numbers.) I've written to my legislators about it, but it was already something they supported.
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-Looking to FIRE in the mid-2020s, which would be our mid-50s.
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03-20-2021, 06:24 AM
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#12
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 2,522
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I've noticed something lately on my home phone system. Where the caller ID is displayed on the handset, there is often a completely different set of numbers on the first line and the second line shows a local number, which leads me to believe that the spoof or alias number is not fully disguised. I won't answer when this happens and so far no legitimate message to call back has been left. So this is an help.
__________________
"Luck favors the prepared mind"
Pasteur
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03-20-2021, 07:53 AM
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#13
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 2,327
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My cellphone is set so it only rings for numbers that are in my contact list. Everything else goes directly to voicemail and if there is no valid message left, it is ignored. If it is valid then we will call back. Yes, this is inconvenient at times, but it is the reality of life these days.
On our landline/voip line, we have been screening (to answering machine) basically for as long as answering machines have been widely available (~80-ies). Friends and relatives have long ago learned that they need to at least start leaving a message so we have time to pick up, if they want to get in touch.
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03-20-2021, 09:11 AM
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#14
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 6,695
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I have had Nomorobo on my land line phone for just over 4 years. It blocks some robocalls but many others get through because the scammers spoof the numbers for every call to stay ahead of Nomorobo's database. We have had many threads here about phone scammers and the tales they tell us to try to get us to give out our personal info. I have gotten the fake Amazon call a few times. I will sign into my Amazon account to make sure there are no recent orders other than the rare one I may have recently authorized which might still be in progress.
__________________
Retired in late 2008 at age 45. Cashed in company stock, bought a lot of shares in a big bond fund and am living nicely off its dividends. IRA, SS, and a pension await me at age 60 and later. No kids, no debts.
"I want my money working for me instead of me working for my money!"
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03-20-2021, 09:15 AM
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#15
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Feb 2021
Posts: 2,351
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My 90 year old mom got two of those calls yesterday. She doesn’t even have an Amazon account. We have to keep telling her it’s a scam and to hang up and not say a word. It’s tough because she’s old and gullible. She’s never actually gotten scammed but so many times has given us great detail about the calls she gets meaning she spent way too much time on the calls.
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03-20-2021, 09:15 AM
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#16
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Moderator
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Flyover country
Posts: 25,357
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Another suggestion is to put the WideProtect app on your phone. I've been using it for a couple of years and it has cut the spam calls down to almost none.
__________________
I thought growing old would take longer.
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03-20-2021, 02:39 PM
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#17
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Moderator
Join Date: Jul 2017
Posts: 5,774
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Yes, we get that call as well . . .
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Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.
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03-20-2021, 02:45 PM
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#18
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 8,968
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Oh yeah, an endless stream of scammers;
Apple account, amazon account, microsoft has found malware on your box, a $700 charge has been placed on your account, press 1 to have it removed.
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03-20-2021, 02:57 PM
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#19
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 691
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Yeah, DW found a setting on her smartphone so that only calls from numbers in her contacts will ring. Highly recommended!
__________________
--At what age does spending less now in order to have more later stop making sense?
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03-20-2021, 03:27 PM
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#20
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Twin Cities
Posts: 3,941
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SnowballCamper
Yeah, DW found a setting on her smartphone so that only calls from numbers in her contacts will ring. Highly recommended!
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Settings/Phones/Silence Unknown Callers. That plus the Hiya app work well for me. For some reason, however, the “Hi this is ATT Direct TV” robocall scam seems able to make it through any fence I can install.
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