OT: Phone scammers getting smarter

[Keith A]

Got a call today on my home phone from what I initially though was my wife calling on her cell phone since the caller ID announce her name. So I answered the phone it was some message stating I had to call about a credit card problem (blah, blah). It turns out that they had faked the number they were calling from and it looked like it was my home number calling my home number. Never seen this one before.

Identity theft is a real problem and they are trying even harder to get your info...be careful out there.

[biker72]

I got a call from myself. Someone was using my user ID to call me.

[Mark McM]

Got a call today on my home phone from what I initially though was my wife calling on her cell phone since the caller ID announce her name. So I answered the phone it was some message stating I had to call about a credit card problem (blah, blah). It turns out that they had faked the number they were calling from and it looked like it was my home number calling my home number. Never seen this one before.

Identity theft is a real problem and they are trying even harder to get your info...be careful out there.

Okay, I'm curious - I get that scammers can fake caller ID's, but how did the scammer link your home phone number with your wife's name (or her cell phone number)?

[Keith A]

The number that showed up was my home number...so it was my home number was calling my home number. I thought our caller ID was set to my name, but maybe it's my wife's name. I don't really know since I don't recall getting a call on someone else's landline from my home phone number...anyone at home would always call my cell phone.

[likebikes]

It's trivial to spoof caller id information.

[Keith A]

It's trivial to spoof caller id information.Both the name and number? Just never seen this one before.

[rePhil]

Had the same thing happen the other day. Caller ID pops up on the television screen with our name and number


Both the name and number? Just never seen this one before.

[MattTuck]

Not trying to make this political, but this seems like the kind of thing that congress should act on. I can see no socially redeeming benefit to it, and it is clear to me that it is (in the worst case) fraud, or (in the most positive case) intentionally misleading.

Why is this stuff not quashed out? Are the phone scammers spending half of their haul on political donations?

[eBAUMANN]

Sneaky stuff. I just dont answer my cell phone if i dont recognize the number, they can leave a message if its important and ill return the call.

Glad I dont have a landline...

[Tony T]

NYT: A Robot That Has Fun at Telemarketers’ Expense (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/25/fashion/a-robot-that-has-fun-at-telemarketers-expense.html)

Enter the Jolly Roger Telephone Company (http://jollyrogertelephone.com). Whenever Mr. Anderson hears from a telemarketer, he patches the caller through to his robot, puts his phone on mute and lets his bot do the talking.

While the simple robot does not possess anything near artificial intelligence, it does understand speech patterns and inflections, so it can monitor what the telemarketer is saying, and then do its best to try to keep the person on the end of the line engaged.

The idea is to keep the telemarketer on the call for as long as possible. The longer the conversation goes on, the more eccentric the robot becomes. In one sequence, the robot tells the telemarketer that a bee landed on his arm, and asks the telemarketer to keep talking as he focuses on the bee.

[AngryScientist]

unfortunately, the people who will fall victim to this stuff are the ones who can potentially be hurt the most by it. elderly folks on fixed incomes, who have a healthy respect for authority and are generally trusting people. The same types who would be under-prepared to fight identity theft crime against them.

these scammers are scumbags, and they prey on good people who have worked their whole lives to save up a few bucks to retire, and they are trying to swindle them out of that.

makes me mad really.

[tbike4]

unfortunately, the people who will fall victim to this stuff are the ones who can potentially be hurt the most by it. elderly folks on fixed incomes, who have a healthy respect for authority and are generally trusting people. makes me mad really.

Yep. I was at my mother in law's house, (she is 81) and heard her take a call and try to say no thanks and then proceed to give out all of her personal data. My wife had to say "Mom STOP!!!". MIL said, "I didn't want to be rude". Older folks need to learn a little rudeness for this situation.

[PaulE]

Voice Over Internet Protocol. I know very little about it, but with the service we use in my small office, I can log into our system and type whatever number I want my caller ID to tell people. Then they put it into some master database that the various phone companies all use to tell you "who" the caller is. So the telemarketing "experts" are abusing this.

At home we get our land line through the cable company as part of our package of cable, internet and phone. So when the tv is on and the land line phone rings, we see caller ID on the tv. We get lots of phone calls from 123-456-7890, 234-567-8900, unknown, etc. But so far, no spam calls from friendly numbers.

[Mark McM]

Voice Over Internet Protocol. I know very little about it, but with the service we use in my small office, I can log into our system and type whatever number I want my caller ID to tell people. Then they put it into some master database that the various phone companies all use to tell you "who" the caller is. So the telemarketing "experts" are abusing this.

At home we get our land line through the cable company as part of our package of cable, internet and phone. So when the tv is on and the land line phone rings, we see caller ID on the tv. We get lots of phone calls from 123-456-7890, 234-567-8900, unknown, etc. But so far, no spam calls from friendly numbers.

And in addition, may of these calls originate from offshore servers, where US laws can't reach.

[biker72]

unfortunately, the people who will fall victim to this stuff are the ones who can potentially be hurt the most by it. elderly folks on fixed incomes, who have a healthy respect for authority and are generally trusting people. The same types who would be under-prepared to fight identity theft crime against them.

these scammers are scumbags, and they prey on good people who have worked their whole lives to save up a few bucks to retire, and they are trying to swindle them out of that.

makes me mad really.

A guy here in Dallas gave some scammer $250K.
The scammers told him the money would ensure life long care for his wife that has Alzheimers.

[rccardr]

We still have a landline for power outage emergencies and get the majority of our spammage calls ln that line. Usually we just hang up if there's nobody there right away (there's always a slight delay for the robo dialer to hand it off to a person or marketing message). But we recently heard a news item on NPR about the Jolly Roger guy, and his responses all seemed to start out with "Is this a live person?". So for the last week or so, that's how I've been responding if it's not a legit call.

Word about the Jolly Roger stuff must be getting out, because most of the time they hang up immediately.

[AngryScientist]

A guy here in Dallas gave some scammer $250K.
The scammers told him the money would ensure life long care for his wife that has Alzheimers.

this is heartbreaking. seriously.

[Keith A]

Sneaky stuff. I just dont answer my cell phone if i dont recognize the number, they can leave a message if its important and ill return the call.

Glad I dont have a landline...We still have a landline (although it's through our cable provider) and one of the main reasons I keep this active is so I can use this phone number for any "business" that wants a number. When we are home, we screen all our calls and don't answer unless we know the caller.

I used to be the same as eBAUMANN with my cell phone and wouldn't answer if you weren't already in my phone as a known entity. However, I recently accepted an assignment at my church and literally thousands have access to this number, and so I now answer for an unknown caller.

We still have a landline for power outage emergencies...For the longest time I held out from switching our real landline to one that was bundled with our cable. When we had all the hurricanes ten years ago, our landline stayed up almost the whole time -- even though we didn't have power for a total of 30 days from the three storms. Cable, power and cell service didn't last long, but our landline did and I was able to use a dial-up Internet connection to get information about what was going on.

[yngpunk]

NYT: A Robot That Has Fun at Telemarketers’ Expense (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/25/fashion/a-robot-that-has-fun-at-telemarketers-expense.html)

Enter the Jolly Roger Telephone Company (http://jollyrogertelephone.com). Whenever Mr. Anderson hears from a telemarketer, he patches the caller through to his robot, puts his phone on mute and lets his bot do the talking.

While the simple robot does not possess anything near artificial intelligence, it does understand speech patterns and inflections, so it can monitor what the telemarketer is saying, and then do its best to try to keep the person on the end of the line engaged.

The idea is to keep the telemarketer on the call for as long as possible. The longer the conversation goes on, the more eccentric the robot becomes. In one sequence, the robot tells the telemarketer that a bee landed on his arm, and asks the telemarketer to keep talking as he focuses on the bee.

This is better than 419eater.com

Hold on there's a bee on my arm...

[parallelfish]

Not trying to make this political, but this seems like the kind of thing that congress should act on. I can see no socially redeeming benefit to it, and it is clear to me that it is (in the worst case) fraud, or (in the most positive case) intentionally misleading.

Why is this stuff not quashed out? Are the phone scammers spending half of their haul on political donations?

Congress has already acted on it - years ago there was a push to ban telemarketing. Congress took the side of the telemarketers.

As a result, nobody answers their phone anymore. They first check the number to see if it is friend or foe. We get at least two dozen unwanted phone calls daily.

[CampyorBust]

Our area got hit hard by the IRS scam and we still continue to get them. I told them to shuv it a few times and off they went, however not before telling me things I dare not repeat in decent company or even to scurvy ridden pirates. He was so pissed that I was not buying it he went all out about as rotten and as personal as you possibly can using broken English. They came back again and again finally got a gullible family member and nearly drove her to tears. We called the police after that, they said yeah we know, hey look on the bright side at least you didn’t give them anything like other people in the area.

[Keith A]

There is still the "National Do Not Call Registry" (https://www.donotcall.gov/), but I'm not sure how effective this is anymore. When we first registered a while back, it seemed to make a difference...not sure if this still helps.

[yngpunk]

If you have VOIP for your phone service, you should sign up (assuming your provider is covered) for Nomorobo - http://www.nomorobo.com/

[Tony T]

On my land-line I have a wireless handset that does call-blocking.

[William]

There is still the "National Do Not Call Registry" (https://www.donotcall.gov/), but I'm not sure how effective this is anymore. When we first registered a while back, it seemed to make a difference...not sure if this still helps.

No, we still get calls anyway.






William

[tumbler]

I got a call from myself. Someone was using my user ID to call me.

I got the same thing a few times and had to block my own number from my iPhone. I block 2-3 additional numbers a day for this crap. I'm usually at my computer so I ignore the call, google the number to make sure it's not something I am expecting, and then block it.

The iPhone has a setting to block numbers not in your contacts, which I've thought about, but is a little too extreme. They need an option to detect spoofed numbers and either block them or pass them to a separate voicemail (like a junkmail folder) informing them that you do not accept calls from spoofed or hidden numbers. This would give any legitimate caller a warning that you probably won't get their voicemail and they should call back from a real number. My email spam is about 0.0%, but my cellphone spam is close to 50%. This shouldn't be that difficult in 2016.

[Peter P.]

Beginning in July, I began getting calls every other day or so that go something like this:

"This call is for Mayxie Robinson. If you are not Mayxie Robinson, please hang up. We are handling a claim. Your claim number is XXXXXXXX. Please call 1-800-XXX-XXXX".

Okay; so it's a recorded message that inserts Mayxie's name. Since I continue to get the same call roughly every other day, I figure whoever this "bill collection" :) agency is, they're counting on me to call them and tell them either to go away or that Mayxie doesn't live here.

You think I'm going to help them? NO!

They can continue to call until Twinkies decompose.

[PaulE]

If you have VOIP for your phone service, you should sign up (assuming your provider is covered) for Nomorobo - http://www.nomorobo.com/

I just signed up. Wish it was available for our cell phone service too!

[unterhausen]

The caller id spoofing seems like it is fairly new. At least I don't recall seeing it before a few months ago.

I get a lot of spam calls at work. My favorite is the scam where they want to talk to the person the buys electricity for your company. Yeah, like I know who buys electricity for the university. And I'm sure they are going to change to your scammer company. But the funny thing is when I tell them that I can see the university electric power plant from my window. It's literally the only thing I can see out the window.

[smontanaro]

.... then proceed to give out all of her personal data. My wife had to say "Mom STOP!!!". MIL said, "I didn't want to be rude". Older folks need to learn a little rudeness for this situation.

Not a problem with my mother-in-law. :D

[smontanaro]

We haven't had a land line for years, so the National Do Not Call Registry doesn't apply (I don't think - have things changed?). I installed an app called Call Control on my Android phone which works pretty well. I let it handle any numbers I don't recognize. If the number is on its crowd-sourced list of bad numbers, the caller is immediately sent to voice mail.

Hmm... I wonder if CC has the ability to patch in the Jolly Roger Phone Company? Maybe I'll check it out. In any case, sending the JRPC guy a few bucks from my PayPal account would probably be a good idea.

[oldpotatoe]

Not trying to make this political, but this seems like the kind of thing that congress should act on. I can see no socially redeeming benefit to it, and it is clear to me that it is (in the worst case) fraud, or (in the most positive case) intentionally misleading.

Why is this stuff not quashed out? Are the phone scammers spending half of their haul on political donations?

:eek:

[unterhausen]

my vague and under-informed understanding is that the problem is the way that tariffs are charged between phone companies. There are scammy phone companies that are making tiny bits of change off of each one of these calls, so they don't stop them.

My thought is that it's getting bad enough again that Congress will do something -- if it's even possible.

It's really nice that they gave us this easily spoofable caller ID system. That seems like it would be relatively easy to have a tech fix for. I have never seen my own number, but I have seen lots of calls from a local exchange number. It's annoying, since we are caring for my MIL, and get lots of calls from care providers