Scammers working overtime lately. Sad.
If you get calls about a topical pain cream, hang up.
Got calls this week from…
Chula Vista, CA
Needham, MA
Spearfish, SD
Corpus Cristi, TX
Riverside, CA
Cody, WY
Carson City, NV
Don’t know anyone in these places. Never answered. Then blocked.
It is very odd for me to get any calls on that phone not related to my business. It’s a cell that I have had for my nonprofit did the last 10 years and was surprised to get an odd call on it. Perhaps someone messed up and it wasn’t a scam attempt.
I don’t even answer the phone anymore until someone I know or need/want to speak to (eg, dr’s office) starts leaving a message. Several scam calls a day. it is really terrible - esp knowing that so many people fall for them.
FYI, I’ve done a very good job keeping my cell number out of the hands of spammers until recently when I bought a domain name on GoDaddy. I checked “public” instead of “private” for my contact info. From the moment I hit go, I’ve been getting non-stop harrasment calls and emails.
I went back and checked “private” for a $14.95 fee but the damage is done. Rookie mistake.
@STEM2017 That happened to me a few years ago as well. I’m back to being ‘off the grid’ on my cell for the most part. I actually have a separate work cell that gets a ton of scam calls though, annoying!
My work cell is mostly folks trying to find out about meetings for my nonprofit and sometimes our bookkeeper. I mostly just get a few calls a year. This batch of calls from State Farm was very persistent–they’re trying to close out a claim with my phone or something that resembles my phone, apparently.
I received 2 calls so far today. Whenever I don’t recognize the number, I let it go to voicemail. Scammers never leave messages.
My State Farm calls did leave messages, and I got an answer when I called the tollfree number they left, so I think they just got the wrong phone number for some reason.
Got a new one yesterday that was impressive: after the initial, tell tale pause when I said hello, the friendly voice said “oh, sorry, dropped my headset there for a minute…” and then went into the script. I tried to interrupt several times before realizing that it was a robocall. Jeez.
It was a timeshare scam iirc. I do answer calls that I don’t recognize from certain area codes where I have friends and family. I have an elderly aunt who lives in Florida so I especially need to answer those because it could be a call from a hospital or neighbor.
We have had a ton of calls from the American Heart Association lately. If we do answer the phone, no one is ever there. We finally blocked the call (landline). So annoying. Now, on the other hand, we kept ignoring calls from a loan company that we never had heard of but we finally answered and then we found out that someone had taken out a loan in my husband’s name. Funny thing was, they had even made a payment!
I used to routinely block loan and collection company calls since a previous phone number had once been used by someone with financial problems. @Onward’s post is a good reminder to pay extra attention to your credit report if you start getting calls like that, in case more than your phone number was being used!
I’ve had about three of those robocalls on our home phone. As if I would want to talk to a real person who started out like that…
Before my DH retired as a Senior Executive Level federal employee we had a secure phone iine in our house. Why it was needed was unclear but in any event the first time the phone rang we all jumped… after that the only time the phone ever rang was from people calling about credit card debt, refinancing our mortgage. Sometimes I would take some info and then I would ask them questions and if they knew they were reaching a secret secure government location where refinancing a mortgage was not really needed or an option… I once suggested they had reached a very large white house and so whatever they were selling was not really going to needed or a priority.
Don’t say Yes!
The newest phone scam - they call and after introducing himself, caller asks, “Can you hear me clearly?”
If you answer “Yes”, that is recorded. Then they try a scam for pymt of goods you never ordered - and use your recorded “Yes” to show you agreed to the purchase.
I just warned my elderly parents about this one.
That is an old scam! Gosh it got resurrected! The first time it was making the headlines, I got into the habit of saying “speaking” if the caller asks “may I speak to Ms. BB?” - instead of saying anything affirmative that can be later used as a “yes”.
Its because of this stuff that I want to still keep a landline and not give out my cell # except when absolutely necessary.
^^ curious if they actually have any proof this is happening? My local news blurb said they have no confirmation it’s happened in my state.
It was on our local news tonight.
Just checked–Clark Howard has articles on it.