Have you ever had a scammer call with info you wrote about on this Forum?

My boss will pick up on a live telemarketing person call. The person is usually selling something to help someone make their business grow faster. My boss will tell them "apparently you didn't do your homework before calling me, I've been in business for over 50 years, do you think I really need your help, fuhgeddaboudit."

I may be too cautious when it comes to cyber security, but I don't think having a real life photo of yourself or family member is a good idea either. AC does get fakes in here from time to time who may use photos, personal names, cities, and states, etc. in ways we would not want.

No, but recently, I calmly told one to get behind me in the name of Jesus and never call me again. He hung up and have not heard from him again. I've never said that before to someone.

No, but I do think it is dangerous for anyone to use their real name plus say what city and state they are from. When I try to warn people about this, some get mad. So I stopped warning people.

Years ago, when it was live people instead of robocalls, I had a client whose daughter was a chatterbox. Mom made a deal with her daughter that when they got unknown calls, she would put her daughter on the line to chat with the caller. The child got $1 a minute to keep the call going. She was really good at stalling, "Oh, just one more thing before I give the phone to my mom" to keep them on the line to waste their time.

The record was 15 minutes and the mom said it was some of the happiest money she spent!

Had a Microsoft one call my parents’ brick n mortar store couple years ago. Told the guy we had an IT dept and that nothing was wrong with our computers. He insisted something was wrong and kept asking me to do stuff to the conputer, so I pretended to get our “head of IT” on the phone, scammer hung up.

Another scammer called my MIL’s landline looking for me (hadn’t lived with her for years and when I did used my cell number for everything) They claimed to be a law firm suing me for a hospital bill. Weird to me since every insurance I’ve ever had fully covered hospital care. So I dug into stuff with this “lawyer”. They claimed it was for a hospital visit at a particular hospital on a particular day, about 8 years prior. Problem was I was not in that state at that time. He then tried the “billing date and service dates could be different.” Again, had not been in that state in years, so if a hospital was billing years after the fact, that would be a problem. He tried a spiel of the hospital is going bankrupt and needs these collections so could I pay this $ over the phone now to avoid litigation. Sorry guy, my mother works that hospital system in a high level position, I’d know if it was going bankrupt. He got very frustrated and said I was risking litigation. That I had two hours to pay or he’d have me served. He rattled off an address for me that was very obviously old (had moved 2 years prior and had two addresses since) so I said I’m not paying, go ahead and try, and if anything came of it I have proof I was not serviced in that hospital at the time their claiming so he’d lose. He hung up on me. Never got served, never heard another thing about it. It’s been like 3 years since that call. A little scary at the time though.

Using call return once, for a strange call, I kept re-dialing so quickly and so often, that the phone opened up the call center where he was calling from, and I listened in....turns out he could not call out for the longest time! (Many years ago).

Would not know how to make that happen ever again, but whoever "they" were,
"they" were really angry.

Microsoft called my husband about some software problem. The person on the phone told hubby to go to the Start menu and type in a command, then asked hubby if this window popped up, yes it did. Ok, type this in the window, ok, this went on for about 10 minutes typing this and that. Guy on the phone said did this window pop up? Hubby said no, ? I won’t repeat what he said to the guy. Guy didn’t find it funny that my husband wasted his time and was outside the entire time with the dog.

Just as an option..... get a couple of new & fresh gmail addresses to use for forums like AC. With Gmail it’s pretty limitless for doing new accounts. This was it’s not the email you use for biz, banking, online payment stuff.

also if you have concerns on AC giving out info, do contact the administrators. The site does get monitored by them. I’ve found them to be responsive.

I wish there was a live person whenever I get a call regarding my cloud. My cloud? We can own clouds? Rain cloud or fluffy cloud? I heard one can own a star.

I've never had any scam calls that had any information other than fictitious information such as that my iPad was infected (I don't even have an iPad), the IRS was after me and I was in danger of being arrested, and those kinds of pitches.    A lot of calls have spoofed Michigan numbers.     

The SS spam call alleging my SS number has been hacked is computer generated.  It's obvious b/c the voice is so monotone and there's NO breath between sentences.    It's kind of like a female Hal (Space Odyssey) - monotoned and w/o any inflection at all.

I decided to have some fun with one house flipper guy.   (I'm really getting sick of these people!)   He claimed interest in my father's house, which unsettled me b/c I don't know HOW he knew to call me on behalf of my father.   He might have been snooping around the house and a neighbor gave him my number.   This happened as well when a woman went to Dad's house to dig up some flowers, w/o permission. (She didn't even think she needed to ask before digging them!)

So I pretended to be interested in the flipper's offer and told him I needed some information before I could consider his offer.

As to the flipper, I said I wanted a financial statement for him and a Dun & Bradstreet report on the company he worked with.    I also asked him what realtor he was affiliated with; he said Keller Williams.  So I called KW and told them someone was impersonating one of their realtors.  

I was given 2 numbers, one a local MLS type tech group, and the other the KW main office.   Neither was interested in getting involved - told me to e-mail the information and they'd forward it.    I didn't want my e-mail and address being forwarded to anyone, so I didn't follow through with them.

Then Mr. Flipper called a few days later, same pitch, but obviously not remembering we had spoken.   So I asked him again which realtor he was affiliated with.   This time it was J R Apple.   I never heard of the outfit and searching didn't indicate there was one in this area.  

There was a long pause when I asked him if he had the D & B report.   He flustered, then claimed he did.   I was getting bored so I then told him I wouldn't consider anything until I spoke with his partner (as I advised I needed to on the first call).    Back pedaling again.  I got bored and hung up.

I'm going to play that game with others - keep giving them lists of things to do and jerk them around.


Tacy, I think I've gotten a few calls from a 989 area code, but I also get them for CA, NY and other places.    I just d/c the call w/o answering.

Well, I have been on the forum here for many years. Thus have written quite a lot of stuff [oh my gosh, I need a life!]. Not once has any of the robo calls felt like they were related to anything I had written. And I think I am pretty good when it comes to research/detective work.

Thus, I wouldn't worry. It's all coincidental. Now I need to call back on that student loan I don't have, after I order that back and knee brace I don't need, after I get new window for the house, once I clear up my social security number, only when I lower my interest rate on my credit card, but first must hide because the IRS has a warrant for my arrest.

I’ve had a strange call. Same number - every Wednesday.

Several months ago - can’t remember when exactly. There was a question from a young woman from Myanmar (Burma). She wanted to come to the US thru the lottery system. Wanted a job and wanted to go to college. I shot several holes in her plan. First being Myanmar not was on the lottery list for the year she wanted.

The call I get every Wednesday comes from Myanmar. I’ve tried blocking the number and it doesn’t work. Never ever had a call or heard of anyone from Myanmar before that AC letter.

That is very creepy, but thanks for the "heads up" everyone.

Yes.
Did not answer.
Area code was from 424.
About the EQ.
A text message.

If I was concerned, or if it keeps happening, I would contact the admins of AgingCare.

A scam call to your own telephone number?

Is there any way you can think of that your account on AC could be linked to your landline?

Those are robo calls, I have gotten that one over and over again for the last year. I tell them I am 72, they hang up on me. I block them, they just use new numbers.

Grannieannie, agingcare has my phone number. If you ever contacted a place for mom or called them with tech difficulties, they have your number as well. Be mindful of that.

Most companies don't notify the customer for months or even years when they have been hacked. However, every visible company will face that at some point if they don't stay ahead with security.

That call and your post here are totally unrelated. No one saw your post and then decided to scam call you. Those calls are robocalls. Think about it—this site doesn’t have your phone number to give out. I get those same calls all the time and it isn’t because I’ve posted here!

GrannieAnnie, it's just a robo caller. If the caller had asked for Grannie Annie, then one would know that that caller had been roaming around the Internet. Please note that all our questions/answers can be found floating around the World Wide Web. Otherwise EVERYONE gets those calls, even kids who aren't old enough to even have a student loan but their cellphones scam bombed :P

At work yesterday when I answered the phone, a recording went into a spiel about how my social security number had been compromised... the recording didn't ask for anyone in the company.

Also, there are robo callers that when one answers, the robo will ask if "______ is available" and when I said "yes, one moment", the software heard "yes" and went into its spiel before I could transfer the call to da boss. Here I thought it was a breathing person on the other end of the phone.

Even at home I found less robo calls when I answer using the company name as the robo calls were expecting me to just say "hello". It confused the software :)

That would mean that agingcare got hacked. There is no way to identify you and where you live just from the forum. That is concerning.

On the lighter side, I have a plan to mess with any caller and I never get those calls. Robo nonsense is what I get. I answer my phone in Spanish and then block the number right away, maybe 1 or 2 monthly is it. I am lucky.

Wow that seems like a lot of sleuthing work to do for someone clueless enough to assume you would still be paying on student loans and fall for their scam!