h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was worried by the credit card call, as mine was different - they didn't block the payment as it wasn't that suspicious, but they did want to tell me about it in case it was suspicious, so the phone call was a bit of a dance around trying not to tell anybody anything.

Once that was sorted, though, the next fraud check was a text message with vague details of transaction amounts and I just had to reply Y to confirm they were mine.

I answered a spam call the other day:

Me:"Hello, Icy speaking"
Caller: "Good morning Icy, how are you today?"
Me: "You've rung me to ask me how I am?"
Caller: "We ringing people to see if they've applied for a free PPI check. Have you..."
Me: "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha..."

(Caller hangs up)

I still appreciate this Counter-Script (©1994) for dealing with telemarketers. The main point is to take over the conversation; you ask the questions!

http://egbg.home.xs4all.nl/counterscript.html

Yes, I saw that one when it first surfaced, pre-internet. It's still a great script.

Yes, "how are you today?" is another indicator of a spam call...

Reminds me of a call I took the other week, where they asked for some random name, so I said it was the wrong number, and then they said, "well, while you're on, can we talk to you about...?"

I just got a call on my mobile, an autodialer threatening me that "This is your final notification..." to lower my credit card rates. . I like to pretend that when I hit the "block/report spam" icon on my phone that it sends a small electric charge to the caller, even if it is a 'bot.

The automated ones often end with 'press 1 to contact an agent (to talk about PPI or whatever), press 9 to unsubscribe'.

I've never pressed anything, and assume that pressing either 1 or 9 or anything else will connect me to some premium rate service in Nigeria which will syphon all my money and personal details away, then install ransomware on my device. Can anyone confirm?

I've never got that far in the recorded message to hear the options.

The landline call we're getting most often at the moment is a pre-recorded survey about my recent hospital experience. But I've had so many hospital experiences in the past 6 weeks that I don't feel I can do the survey, because it's not clear which experience they are surveying me about.

Mol

Regarding whether to actively "unsubscribe", you're probably better off just hanging up, especially if it's an unknown and unsolicited caller. If it's an organization you know, like a charity, you might be safe waiting through the long intro to find out which number to press to stop receiving calls. Sometimes it actually works.





According to this morning's news, Houston residents are getting this same scam but it's centered around Jury Duty. Callers are spoofing the actual phone numbers for the Harris County Sheriffs office and often using the names of actual officers threatening to jail people for skipping jury duty. But they're "offering" a quick resolution to the warrant if the callee purchases a prepaid debit or cash card and read the numbers to them. They're making it sound even more legitimate by requesting they also send documentation to an address that sounds like the actual courthouse.

They suspect this particular scam is being run by inmates and guards in a Georgia prison!

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Jury-duty-scam-becoming-more-brazen-9289684.php

The commonest one I get on the mobile is "I'm calling about the minor accident you had in your car." Further questioning elicits that they're referring to the accident I had that was not my fault, the one that happened within the last three years. They're sure it happened, and they know I may be entitled to compensation. Some of them even have a specific amount of money I'm entitled to claim, always several thousand pounds. Oddly, however, none of them EVER can tell me the date of the incident, even to within a year.

What I generally like to do in these cases is ask them which incident they mean. What I get back is "It was a minor accident, within the last three years", to which I generally respond along the lines of "I have had a *lot* of accidents in the last three years, can you please be more specific which one you mean?". I try to come across as keen to know more and keen to help, but simply unable to tell them which of the many, many accidents I've had which they might be referring to. Their scripts seem completely unable to deal with this possibility.

In the past I've said "I haven't had an accident", to which they respond "someone else must have been driving your car", or "I have had an accident but wasn't hurt", to which they respond "You don't need to have been injured, you can claim for distress".

But if you agree that you HAVE had a crash, and that you DO want to claim, but just need them to tell you which of the many, many crashes you've had is the relevant one, they seem to short-circuit. At least three times THEY have hung up on ME, even as I've been trying to give them as much "help" as I can

Try it.

Are there no prohibitions against barratry and solicitation in the UK?

It's illegal in the US (and some states bar associations have stricter rules) for attorneys to directly people who have been arrested or involved in an accident.

Some still do it, but not often. This doesn't stop them from filling the daytime TV broadcasts with advertisements.

I've grown up with this guy's ads.

http://youtu.be/15M9b6PAdro

I don't think it can be, there are a lot of calls about it here.

My uncle answers those particular calls with:
Was that the accident in Altrincham with the Audi?

No..
Was it the one in Bristol with the BMW?

And so on through the alphabet. His record is F, before they hung up.

Mol

I believe the BBC covered this story, but I couldn't find it there.

Police raided an Indian call center running IRS phone scams.

http://www.snopes.com/2016/10/07/india-raid-call-center/

Wow! That's a serious operation. I wonder if the agents making calls knew what they were doing.

If it hits front page news it could really damage the Indian call centre industry.

I don't know how they wouldn't know what they're doing. But I wonder which pays more? Legitimate call centers or this?

I've had the same mobile number for years, and for the past couple of months I've also had a landline, but am yet to receive any scam calls at all on either. Dunno whether there's just less motivation for people to bother scamming Ireland, or what.

TRiG.

61 people and entities(?) have been charged by the US Dept. of Justice in IRS phone scams out of call centers in Ahmedabad, India.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/10/27/499585590/justice-department-charges-61-people-in-fake-irs-phone-call-conspiracy

I've got a new approach to scammers. I got bored of trying to be helpful. I offer this approach to any gentlemen who'd like to try it (ladies will see why it's less likely to work for them, but you're welcome to try). Note before you judge what follows, that the people are following a script, are generally encouraged not to hang up, and that they called me unsolicited. Onwards...

I received a call from a VERY nice sounding lady who want to help me make some sort of insurance claim. On a whim, I responded simply with "What are you wearing?". It is a sad indictment of the state of our society that she immediately saw where that was going and hung up.

A few days later I received a call from a really lovely sounding voice, I think she might have been Indian or otherwise south Asian but her accent was very slight. She told me I'd been selected to take part in a marketing survey and I needed to answer just two questions that would take only a minute or two. "What are you wearing?"... there was a pause. "What do you mean?", she said. I made my voice as creepy as I could (which is, let me tell you, very creepy indeed), and said "What sort of clothes have you got on." She hung up.

The third voice was businesslike and just wanted to help me sort out the claim for the car accident that wasn't my fault. "What are you wearing?". Another long pause, followed by "Why do you need to know what I'm wearing?". I didn't have a scripted response for that, but I figured in for a penny, let's go for it. "How am I supposed to masturbate to the sound of your voice if I can't picture you while I'm doing it?"

...

Well, let me tell you - he did NOT like that. He got quite abusive for a few moments before he hung up.

The funny thing is, the rate at which I receive those calls has PLUMMETED. I think I'm on some sort of list.

Probably a register...

Love it