The Scammers Must Never Sleep

[terry_g]

Today I got a message on the answering machine from toll free service. Apparently someone is using my credit card and I did not make a purchase of $2000 and some dollars I need to call the following 1 800 number immediately to stop the charges on my card. Yesterday I was sent an E-Transfer to my cell phone for several hundred dollars from Canada Revenue service, just click on the link to my bank enter my username and password to deposit the funds. I sometimes get several of these in a month. I suppose there are people that fall for this.

 

[140mower]

Yeah, they sleep...... All the while dreaming up new ways of ripping innocent people off.....

 

[Tom O]

I get those too along with unable to deliver parcel from Can Post, and CIBC &TD Banks saying that there is a problem with my account.

 

[Doggggboy]

Today I got a message on the answering machine from toll free service. Apparently someone is using my credit card and I did not make a purchase of $2000 and some dollars I need to call the following 1 800 number immediately to stop the charges on my card. Yesterday I was sent an E-Transfer to my cell phone for several hundred dollars from Canada Revenue service, just click on the link to my bank enter my username and password to deposit the funds. I sometimes get several of these in a month. I suppose there are people that fall for this.

Mark the incoming numbers as spam and block. Yes, they will just cycle through and call again from a different number. Mark the new number as well.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
It's really about all we can do from our end.

 

[slow-poke]

I had one like this a while back.......

Mr. so and so, this is the internal revenue service calling and you're in big trouble now!

If you don't make arrangements for payment immediately we will need to send the army for enforcement.

The SWAT team did not rappel through my window with full night vision goggles and a blazing Uzi, so I guess I just got lucky;-)

The tip off was the other hundred similar conversations going on in the background;-)

At least the calls are entertaining.

This thread has potential for a lot of laughs, keep them coming.

 

[Susquatch]

I get those too along with unable to deliver parcel from Can Post, and CIBC &TD Banks saying that there is a problem with my account.

Seems the service industry is a big target. The one that kills me is the crook that infiltrated my computer and recorded me playing with myself while watching porn. The SOB is gunna send the video to everyone in my address book if I don't give him 10 grand in bitcoin. I must do that in my sleep each night cuz there are a few hundred crooks out there who recorded me.

I told him most of my contacts already have videos of me doing that. My wife's sisters daughters uncle's wife sells that video on ebay for much less than they want from me.

 

[Tom O]

Well you could always get a tattoo like “ Eat At Joes “ so you get paid for the advertising!

 

[mmcmdl]

I got a call from a Queen's husband from some country that a hurricane destroyed a few years back . Turns out he was legit and hauled a Lagun FTV-2 outta my garage . Now where my rich uncle from Tansania is I don't know .

 

[kevin.decelles]

It’s funny to watch my dad when he gets a call from one of these guys….. no computer, no internet, Flip phone, Pays in cash or cheque……. Basically 1970 lifestyle

And then the calls saying they are Amazon etc start coming in….. man do they get ripped a new one especially if they interrupt wheel of fortune or jeopardy

 

[Ironman]

A few years back I was using Linux and I received a call from a reasonable sounding lady who had English as her first language. Told me they had been forwarded an email I sent and it had a virus. She was willing to help me get rid of it. Hmmmmm. I told her my OS was linux and that was very virus proof. Then she stepped in the cowpie. She asked me to go to my C: drive. I told her I use Linux and there is no C drive. Now she is insisting I have a virus on my C drive, and told me every computer has a C drive.
I played with her for 10 minutes, and finally she asked me why I'm doing this. I told her, because of what you are doing to innocent people, I have tied you in knots for about 12 minutes and that means I have saved a couple of people from you.

She hung up on me...the nerve.

 

[terry_g]

I had a guy with a strong south east Asian accent call me claiming he was from Canada revenue Agency.
He said I owed several hundred dollars and If I did not pay up right away he would send the FBI to arrest me.
I explained to him very condescendingly what his mistake was and if he was going to try scamming people it
would help if he was more intelligent than them. He hung up on me.

 

[Bandit]

Ya, I maybe had a guy sent to the hall to cool down, before he hung up, he was hollering and swearing something fearful about all the time he wasted talking to me!

 

[slow-poke]

I find these calls entertaining and I have found two responses that seem to work well, the first one is you start negotiating the price down and the lower they go the lower you go. The second is to ask if they have intimate relations with various animals, this one really seems to get their goat (pardon the pun), never fails they get really irate.

 

[ChazzC]

Mark the incoming numbers as spam and block. Yes, they will just cycle through and call again from a different number. Mark the new number as well.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
It's really about all we can do from our end.

Don’t forget to also mark the number they want you to call as spam also.

 

[combustable herbage]

The only reason it continues is because it is successful. Preying on any insecurity you may have.

Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre

antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca

​

The impact of fraud so far this year​

As of December 31, 2023

• Reports processed:
  62,365
  (92,078 in 2022)
• Victims of fraud:
  41,111
  (57,578 in 2022)
• Lost to fraud:
  $554 M
  ($531 M in 2022)

 

[trevj]

Ya, I maybe had a guy sent to the hall to cool down, before he hung up, he was hollering and swearing something fearful about all the time he wasted talking to me!

Ayup. I'll talk and talk and talk, to the scammers that will still talk to me (pretty sure they have a 'Bad Number' list they share) to waste their time and generally cut in to their productivity bonus.

Some dude from "Amazon Security" was pretty close to being convinced that I had a walk-in Amazon store locally. I kept a guy from "Widows Security" going around in circles for 45 minutes while he was trying to allow him remote access to my computers ( a 'Hostage" situation in the making), and so on.

And one guy called me back three times, PO'd that I was laughing at him, after wasting half his morning! Which made me laugh harder! Till it genuinely hurt! LOL!

I love being "hard of hearing" and making them scream into their headset so I can hear them! LOL! And being forgetful. Or just changing the subject mid-script.

If I could type faster, I suppose i might even chance at turning the tables on these clowns by taking over their systems, via the same software they are attempting to use against me, but I am not. I HAVE however, watched some very capable guys doing just that on various videos, and wish them well in their endeavors!

 

[jcdammeyer]

I would like to see the implementation of a *69 feature to our phones. The telephone companies know where the number originates so it's impossible to clone my number unless they have allowed that sort of thing. So I'd like to be able to *69 to the sources creating these bogus messages which results in a billing of $100 to that number once there have been 5 occurrences of *69 from 5 different customers. That's to avoid you doing it to someone you don't like.

For example these numbers https://www.yellowpages.ca/fs/780/676/ all belong to Rogers. So how is it possible for these numbers to send messages that Canada Post wasn't able to deliver a parcel and needs more information. To get rid of the scammers we need to go after Rogers. But they make money on each call in one way or the other so there needs to be a way to make them lose way more than they make. Then the calls will stop.

 

[trevj]

I would like to see the implementation of a *69 feature to our phones. The telephone companies know where the number originates so it's impossible to clone my number unless they have allowed that sort of thing. So I'd like to be able to *69 to the sources creating these bogus messages which results in a billing of $100 to that number once there have been 5 occurrences of *69 from 5 different customers. That's to avoid you doing it to someone you don't like.

For example these numbers https://www.yellowpages.ca/fs/780/676/ all belong to Rogers. So how is it possible for these numbers to send messages that Canada Post wasn't able to deliver a parcel and needs more information. To get rid of the scammers we need to go after Rogers. But they make money on each call in one way or the other so there needs to be a way to make them lose way more than they make. Then the calls will stop.

I gotta agree with you John, the carriers are if not complicit in this, then they are being willfully blind to what goes on, on their networks. And it would be a lot of fun to see them burned at the stake, if not literally, then at least, financially, over this.

Most of the scammers use Voice Over Internet Protocol systems that they can spoof the number they supposedly are calling from, but it seems to me the Phone Companies have not put near the effort they should, in to ensuring that the supposed source of a call, really IS the source of the call.

 

[jcdammeyer]

IIRC, each IP packet has the source and destination address. As it hops from place to place a new packet is created with the original inside the new one and once again the source of this location and the original destination are in that packet. And so on. At any point it's possible for 'naughty' intermediate point to modify any one of the source/destination addresses to suggest a different address. I believe that's how you get emails that are from you, to you, telling you they have video of you playing with yourself while watching porn.

But that's not the telephone system. Or maybe now it is. in either case it should be stopped. IMHO.

 

[wmetfab]

Years ago I had anoying calls.
I kept one of those small compressed air boat horns by the phone and gave a good blast into the mic.
I laughed for a week
Didnt get any more calls for a loong time.
True story.
I would highly reccomend it !