Posted on 02/17/2014 3:11:05 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
We have been getting daily calls from a phone bank. Sometimes the calls are abandoned before we answer. Today I asked the guy who he was and he said something like "American Finance" and that I had applied for a loan. I told him that he was an accessory to identity theft and to dispose of the loan application or I would sue. He hung up.
I checked both my credit report and my wife's credit report and there has been no unusual activity.
Is this something I should be worried about?
I used that link a lot in the past. I’ve been getting calls on my cell from 215/278-xxxx a lot for the past month or so. Robocall from Philadelphia.
One of the reasons not to answer a phone if you don’t recognize the number is that if you answer, the caller knows it’s a viable number and suddenly charges will appear for calls to places you’ve never heard of.
It’s ridiculous that we have to go to such great lengths to protect ourselves. The old eight party line we had as a child was a lot more secure than what we have now.
Identify yourself as the Immigration and Naturalization Service, FBI or US Border Patrol Headquarters.
Works wonders
A guy I worked with had it figured out. He would wait until they paused and say, “I’m naked...what are you wearing?”
They always hung up.
I’m getting emails with the subject matter being something about a loan being approved. I don’t open them.
What was the number he called from?
I once had a scammer like this calling me repeatedly. I finally answered the phone and immediately said:
“County Sheriff’s Office, Fraud Division—WHO IS THIS?!”
The guy began stammering and I continued:
“WHO IS THIS?!!—You are calling from a phone number known to have participated in fraud. WHO IS THIS?!! WHERE ARE YOU LOCATED SIR?!! DO NOT HANG UP SIR OR YOU WILL BE INTERFERING WITH A LAW ENFORCEMENT INVESTIGATION!
About that time he hung up and I never got a call from that number again.
Sometimes when Rachel from “Card Member Services” calls and asks me to press 1 to talk to a person, I get forwarded to a recording. Them I’m asked to leave my name/number for someone to call me back.
From a yellow sticky where I have the info written down... I give them the name of the local FBI field agent and his number.
From a yellow sticky where I have the info written down... I give them the name of the local FBI field agent and his number.
Nice tip, thanks.
Tell them to contact you by mail.
If he asks for your mailing address, tell him they already have it.
Hang up
Before that list thing, I used to tell them that I had a brother who is recovering from a mental breakdown and the doctors said that he needed to start interacting with strangers again. A short pause to get crazy bro and I would start gibbering about how their product was a front for the moon men that come to visit every night. Also sometimes crazy bro needed written and verified proof that he was talking to an actual mammal, because their voice sure sounded reptilian. “How can I say yes when you might have been hatched from an egg?!!” and “I sympathize, but you must realize an actual reptile would also deny it.”
Freegards
That’s what answering machines are for .... most just hang up ... especially if your message does not identify you, the number or any other information about you. Real easy to scan through caller id before you delete them. Any real callers will leave a message.
Say “Hello, My Name is Peggy...”
That is your fault.
Why is anyone at fault?
A lot of Hindus have accents, often quite rich ones, based on British English. Then, on its own, English lends itself to regionalisms, so if your ear was tuned to it enough, you might be able to distinguish all sorts of Indian English accents.
I knew of a college professor with such a finely tuned ear, who as late as the early 1960s, could talk with an American for a few minutes, and tell to within 50 miles where he had been raised. But even then he was aware that with radio and TV, regionalisms were collapsing into a “continental” American English.
Here is a gigantic .gif map of just the current major American dialects.
https://holtz.org/~holtzorg/Library/Images/Slideshows/Gallery/Maps/American%20English%20dialects.gif
(Note: I got a “potentially unsafe site” warning from my browser, but it is in error.)
Contrary to popular belief that won't work since the telephone company has a system that reduces all sounds to a steady, low level.
Radio stations go one step beyond that. They're all equipped with a system that brings low sounds up and high sounds down...quickly. That's why you never hear blaring of music, for example. I always got a kick out of the brand name for one station I worked for: The Level Devil.
Think about it. (hint, has nothing to do with the phone, was being sarcastic)
LOL
Thanks, I didn’t know any of that. Ever since I saw Archie Bunker blast an air horn into a phone on an episode of “All in the Family”, I thought it would be fun to do.
I got one of those a couple of years ago. It was fun messing with him.
“Where did you get this number?”
“Who is your supervisor?”
“Please speak clearly so your voice can be recorded better.”
“Think about it. (hint, has nothing to do with the phone, was being sarcastic)
“
—
I’m an 81 year old woman and even I got it.
:-)
.
Yes, it’s one of those things that seem logical—and fun—but don’t work.
There is one exception. Within a closed system such as a company’s internal telephone system in which people can call other employees without dialing out, it would work since the calls are not routed through the telephone company.
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