It's gone too far...

[Colin_T]

Years ago I had a guy call me trying to get my personal details and offering me a free cruise and all sorts of stuff. I was interested in a free or even cheap cruise but didn't have a passport or driver's license at the time. He bugged me for over half an hour and was insistent I give him my details. I eventually said I don't have a driver's license or passport and he did his nut saying I wasted his time and I just laughed.

I had another one that kept calling regularly saying they were from Microsoft. One time when I answered they said they were from Microsoft and were calling me because I had apparently needed help with my computer. I kept him on the line for about 15 minutes asking him questions and trying to get his phone number and real name. Eventually he asked who I was and I responded with Sargeant Roberts from Cannington Police Station and we used Apple computers not Windows. I said I have been tracing the call while you tried to get personal information from me and we will be talking to you in person very soon. There was a brief pause before the phone was hung up really quickly. Now I don't advise people to impersonate cops but I never heard from those scammers again.

I had another guy call me from Microsoft saying it was a return call to fix my pc. I asked him a few questions and he asked who I was. I said I am head of Microsoft's Security Department. There were a few words in Indian I think (pretty sure they were swear words) before the phone line disconnected.

I had a call from a telemarketer about the government just before an election. I am on a disability pension and sit at home all day and don't get visitors so when someone rings up, I talk to them. I spent about an hour on the phone chatting with this lady about the elections. She seemed like a nice person and I was bored. I think I wasted her night tho

 

[jaylach]

What gets me most are the email spams that are supposed to be from a bank that you are supposed to be a member. In most of these the spelling and grammar are so bad I don't understand how people get sucked in.

There has been an interesting turn of events in the U.S. that affects robocalls.

AI-generated voices in robocalls are illegal, rules FCC | Malwarebytes

The FCC has ruled that the use of AI generated voices in robocalls is illegal, by considering them as artificial under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

www.malwarebytes.com

Here is a partial quote:

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced that calls made with voices generated with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be considered “artificial” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Effective immediately, that makes robocalls that implement voice cloning technology and target consumers illegal.

Robocalls are automated phone calls, often associated with scams, which can be a nuisance to individuals and businesses alike. Some of these calls use AI generated voices of trusted celebrities to gain the trust of the target, in a technique known as voice cloning.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

We have a no call list in Canada, but as for everyone else, the calls don't come from here.
I was really annoyed at one call, as a woman pitched a scam at me. It was tailored to catch out elderly people, maybe with early dementia, and it was well presented. I listened, and when it ended, was asked if I had any questions. I said I knew it was tough to make a living, but was it easy to be a thief? There was a pause of maybe ten seconds, and she said "No. It really isn't."

That is so sad. I hope you got her thinking and maybe into a different line of work. I had a similar call one time, obviously playing on older people's patriotism and trying to get people to donate to help disabled veterans. I listened to the pitch, then told the man he should be ashamed of himself for trying to steal money from old people. He did not choose to engage in conversation with me after that.

@Magnum Man If you ever need some satisfaction, have a look at this guy:

 

[Colin_T]

That is so sad. I hope you got her thinking and maybe into a different line of work. I had a similar call one time, obviously playing on older people's patriotism and trying to get people to donate to help disabled veterans. I listened to the pitch, then told the man he should be ashamed of himself for trying to steal money from old people. He did not choose to engage in conversation with me after that.

There was a report on this on TV a while ago and it showed a lot of the people who did the calling were prisoners. They weren't state or federal criminals, but people who had gone to a foreign country and been kidnapped, hijacked, whatever, and locked in buildings with other people and forced to make scam calls to pay for their freedom. They could also gain their freedom if one of their family or friends sent a huge amount of money to the criminals running the scam. When they were nearly paid off, they got sold to someone else who wanted their money back and a vicious cycle appears with the person paying for their freedom and being sold onto the next person. These leaders who buy the people are involved in organised crime and basically have slaves that were taken from the street and forced to work or die and be dumped in the bush.

Not all telephone scams are done this way but a significant portion are. The rest are done by organised crime who use their own members to do the calling.

 

[Magnum Man]

I did put my number on the do not call registry... hopefully it won't disrupt calls from the alarm service or any recall calls ( I've never had one, & should be only from our customers, so I wouldn't think those would be effected ) not sure on the alarm service though???

I was tired losing an extra hour of sleep, I usually only get about 6.5 hours, so losing one of those is detrimental... no calls last night ( it takes 30 days to be effective putting on the no call list ) but I slept good last night, being extra tired, & not getting a call at 4:00 in the morning...

 

[Essjay]

If your registry is the same as the UK's Telephone Preference Service, they only deal with cold callers who are trying to sell something, and who are actually phoning from within the UK. We haven't had anyone selling double glazing etc for years.
But they can't stop these scam calls as they originate outside the UK, and even if they were in the UK they wouldn't care if we were registered with TPS. Criminals trying to con people out of money, or conning people into giving them remote access to their computer wouldn't think twice about ignoring TPS.


As I was typing we just had another, the kind who hang up as soon as they realise an answering machine has answered the call. This number has been searched 22 times on 'who called me' and one person has left a comment saying the caller just hung up.

 

[GaryE]

Here, the do not call registry was used by out of country scammers to confirm real phone numbers. A lot of what they do is randomly generate numbers, and save (or sell) the ones who answer even if they hang up.

When I moderated another now defunct forum, I would get the geo-coordinates of the spammers. Most were yandex addresses - in Russia. When US elections would start, spam would drop to almost nothing, as the machine would be turned over to election manipulation. I saw the same with the very start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, however, that was when the forum croaked. These are smart players, and while we may get the johnny come latelys with the bad grammar and such, the serious operators are real pros. It's an unregulated business with serious resources and no ethics. It isn't going away.

 

[Myrkk]

It just takes them getting you at the wrong time, when you’re a little vulnerable. A few years back my hubbie was in cardio-thoracic high dependency because some silly woman had changed lanes without looking and bounced him off her car and into the railings around the pelican crossing. They worked on him for an hour to be able to move him from the road as his lungs had started to collapse (he was on his motorbike so multiple injuries). The day after I got a call from someone saying we’re calling about the accident and my stressed, sleep deprived, addled brain, without thinking confirmed there had indeed been an accident. Cue 2wks of them calling me, multiple times a day, trying to get my husbands number off me so they could call him in hospital. I eventually lost my temper and called them some horrible names along the lines of blood sucking parasites that I’d love to stand on and hung up, they got the message and stopped calling.
This sadly is what they bank on, getting that one person at a vulnerable time. Don’t know if anyone has seen the imperfects on telly but I would like to have the abilities of the lass who is super sound sensitive at times.

 

[Rocky998]

I always ignore these types of calls but my husband LOVES messing with them, even if they've phoned a friend in his company he will often take their phone and speak to them. He makes me cry with laughter, he tries to put on as many accents as he can and the absurd situations he makes up for them are just hilarious. My personal favourite was when they called to let us know that we were in an accident and were entitled to compensation...hubby playing along confirmed and was asked to recount what happened, he described the craziest yet believable story that went on for ages and when he was finally asked how badly he was injured he explained that he had died the person on the phone was so confused as Mr Barnicles had been so sincere and realistic that you could visualise the cogs turning in their brain trying to work out what was happening. Did he die and been resuscitated? "No, I'm dead...and I'm sitting right behind you..." ....they disconnected after that but gave us a good laugh anyway

I've always wanted to be like that... But I just can't lol. Too much anxiety

 

[Ceez]

We have a no call list in Canada, but as for everyone else, the calls don't come from here.
I was really annoyed at one call, as a woman pitched a scam at me. It was tailored to catch out elderly people, maybe with early dementia, and it was well presented. I listened, and when it ended, was asked if I had any questions. I said I knew it was tough to make a living, but was it easy to be a thief? There was a pause of maybe ten seconds, and she said "No. It really isn't."

I don't think I've had one with a human on the line for several years. It's all robocalls now.

The wife of an ex co-worker of mine got scammed for $30k. Short story is she was called by "her bank" and asked questions about her account raising concern about fraudulent activity. She was tricked into confirming account details and the following morning the account was barren.

 

[Back in the fold]

The wife of an ex co-worker of mine got scammed for $30k. Short story is she was called by "her bank" and asked questions about her account raising concern about fraudulent activity. She was tricked into confirming account details and the following morning the account was barren.

$30,000 bucks ! And the ba . . . .ds got away with it ? That just boils me .

 

[Ceez]

$30,000 bucks ! And the ba . . . .ds got away with it ? That just boils me .

Yea she gave all her info to them. Ive had my account drained twice once for 8k and another time for 4k. Both times the bank made it right and returned my money. Both times my debit card info was somehow compromised. I received my cash back within a couple days each time. The 8k was stolen in Florida and I live in California...the 4k I didn't get a lot of details. FDIC worked for me.

I told my co-worker about my experience and told him he would be fine but after I found out what had happened I wasn't so sure. The bank denied the return of his money because his wife voluntarily gave away their info. He spoke to a few attorneys that essentially told him they couldn't help.

It's been 3 years or so since that happened so I don't remember the details but the gist of the story was how they talked to her and made her feel comfortable like it was her bank. They knew the banks speil and had made her feel comfortable and concerned. The rest is history.

Financial institutions will never call and ask you to verify or give account info, ever. Being taken advantage of like that has to feel just utterly awful. My Dad's 73 and I take care of his financials because I worry about him getting taken advantage of. He makes all the decisions but I explain his options so its not coming from someone else.


He wanted solar on the house. He got a quote from a contractor and gave me the numbers. It was gonna cost close to $300 a month for 30 years but the catch was his monthly payment would increase 3-5% every 3 years. I called the contractor and inquired about all the details and that one specifically. They said the power company raises their rates yearly so this was to offset that....I called 2 other contractors and did some online research only to find a good deal and evidence the 1st contractors were crooks. We settled on $167 a month for 30 years no increases with a fully warrantied system.

Nothing gets under my skin more than people taking advantage of the elderly. I've been vibrating mad a few times over matters concerning my father and people trying to take advantage. I've lost faith in mankind as a whole...


Sorry for the tangent but after reading Gary's post it reminded me of it all.

 

[Back in the fold]

@Ceez You’ve lost faith in mankind as a whole ? Don’t think you’re the only one . I trust absolutely nobody except my immediate family . Something has gone horribly wrong in society in the past twenty years and people are just no good .

 

[gwand]

@Ceez You’ve lost faith in mankind as a whole ? Don’t think you’re the only one . I trust absolutely nobody except my immediate family . Something has gone horribly wrong in society in the past twenty years and people are just no good .

These creeps have always been around. There just wasn’t an internet for the miscreants to exploit for nefarious purposes.

 

[Ceez]

@Ceez You’ve lost faith in mankind as a whole ? Don’t think you’re the only one . I trust absolutely nobody except my immediate family . Something has gone horribly wrong in society in the past twenty years and people are just no good .

I dont even trust some of them...my Dad is the last of a dying breed. If he gives his word its iron clad you never have to wonder.

I'll say I've been on a lot of forums in the past, this one feels like home. I appreciate the content here and everyone's willingness to help if they can but keep quiet if they can't. Doesn't seem like there are attention seekers here, just genuine people who love keeping fish in a glass box.