Bad time for a scam

[bhskittykatt]

This was relayed to me by Boss Man. This happened on my day off.

CW gets a call from someone claiming to be from Corporate. They say they are doing a survey of all the GSRs. CW says they'll have to talk to Boss Man. She starts to transfer them, but they hang up.

She was tipped off because when they called, it would have been 9:00pm at Corporate HQ. No one is there past 3pm. (They say they work until 5pm, but I've never been able to get a hold of anyone past 3pm their time. Lazy butts.) So there's no way in hell that call could have been from them.

[PepperElf]

any idea of what they were after?

[Mondestrucken]

We used to have public phone lines, so that customers could call into their local branch of the DMV to ask questions. (PS - they now have a phone center that handles all calls).

I receive a call one day. It is the local police department. This woman wants me to run a driver's license number to find out if the license is suspended.

Me: You are calling from the Pontiac Police Department?

Her: Yes. (Kind of huffy, like I am not moving fast enough for her).

Me: Can you explain to me why you can't look it up yourself? You have access to the same system.

Her: (Pause) Our computers are down.

Me: Okay. Then can you explain to me why you are calling me on the public phone line, and not the one reserved for the police department? (Actually, it wasn't reserved for just the police department, but it was a private unlisted number, and the police department did have it).

Click.

[Raveni]

any idea of what they were after?

Most of the time, these are vendors looking for product info so that they can ship you product or toner, paper, and other supplies and claim that you (the person on the phone) authorized it.

Sometimes they get really tricky and will shift to saying that something is wrong with whatever device they are asking about and will need to troubleshoot things. You really only need to run into one person willing to give you the IP address and all the information off of the router, firewall, and credit card machines to score big. Especially when you work for a big company that doesn't change the default settings.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Most of the time, these are vendors looking for product info so that they can ship you product or toner, paper, and other supplies and claim that you (the person on the phone) authorized it.

I keep wondering when I will get a call like that on my business line. While it would be amusing to have them send me free toner for my three printers, I don't think I want to chance using their probably crappy toner in my printers.

[Dreamstalker]

The Repair Shop From Hades would get calls like that all the time (while he actually sold ink, it was the crappy offbrand stuff that lasts about a week and could destroy the printer). Most of the time I answered the phone (we got very, very few legit calls) and could head them off at the pass, but one day when I wasn't there the Assistant apparently answered one of the calls and gave them all the info they wanted

Not long after, the shop came under a massive spam/virus attack but the owner wouldn't let me deal with it.

[IvorTangrean]

I keep wondering when I will get a call like that on my business line. While it would be amusing to have them send me free toner for my three printers, I don't think I want to chance using their probably crappy toner in my printers.

Nobody said free, they bill you for it. They get the info and then ship you product with a bill that you never asked for.

[sevendaysky]

Ah but in most states (nationwide?) if someone sends you something unsolicited with a bill inside, you're entitled to keep the item without paying for it. It's different if you went to Amazon.com and placed an order, because you've requested and paid for it.

These people on the phone want you to answer these questions, get address, etc, hoping that whoever gets the package will just pay the bill rather than say "HEY we didn't authorize this!"

[Ironclad Alibi]

A quick Google search turned this FTC web page about unordered merchandise, which says in part:

What do you do when you receive merchandise that you didn’t order? According to the Federal Trade Commission, you don’t have to pay for it. Federal laws prohibit mailing unordered merchandise to consumers and then demanding payment.

[Raveni]

Oh, but you did "order" it, and they have the name of the person who ordered it from their "salesperson", and probably enough tape of the call to make it sound true too. The scammers are slick, and persistent. Most of the time one of them calls, if you can get them to shut up for a few seconds you can hear a busy call center in the background.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Oh, but you did "order" it, and they have the name of the person who ordered it from their "salesperson", and probably enough tape of the call to make it sound true too. The scammers are slick, and persistent. Most of the time one of them calls, if you can get them to shut up for a few seconds you can hear a busy call center in the background.

I know. I always strive to avoid using any words that could be construed to mean agreement of any sort. Since I recently got stung* by one of them, about the only thing I now say is "Not interested" and hang up. And I do that to all telemarketers.

* Some one calling on behalf of my CC company was selling CC protection insurance. I told her "no" many times, and that I did not want to see any charges froom them on my bill. Well the next bill had the $1 trial program charge on it. I managed to get it cancelled and refunded.

[Bronzebow]

Oh, but you did "order" it, and they have the name of the person who ordered it from their "salesperson", and probably enough tape of the call to make it sound true too. The scammers are slick, and persistent. Most of the time one of them calls, if you can get them to shut up for a few seconds you can hear a busy call center in the background.

I've heard the same, with some scammers even going so far as to edit the phone call recording so that it sounds like you're making a phone order. I've been hit by a few of these guys, I'm pretty certain. Lucky me gets the office number that's listed in the phone book. Nowadays, I just get the robodialers that hang up on you when you answer.

[Dreamstalker]

Some one calling on behalf of my CC company was selling CC protection insurance.

I hate hate hate those calls. I doubt they're actually acting "on behalf of" the card companies (one of my card issuers has been found to be selling account info to a few of these creeps).

I told her "no" many times, and that I did not want to see any charges froom them on my bill. Well the next bill had the $1 trial program charge on it. I managed to get it cancelled and refunded.

I was told to never actually say "Yes" during one of those calls as that might be construed as agreeing to whatever they're selling.

[Andara Bledin]

I was told to never actually say "Yes" during one of those calls as that might be construed as agreeing to whatever they're selling.

The big thing used to be hideously expensive business directories. They'd call claiming to be "confirming your information."

They always spiked my bullshit meter right away, so my answers were always along the lines of "that is the correct address," and "you have the correct phone number." Things that would have been difficult to even splice together into something sounding like a confirmation of an order.

^-.-^