I got this scam phone call just now. It went to messages but I played it back. I did a bit of research and it seems a number of folks are getting it in the past few days.
“Yes, this is Karen Walker and um I’m calling in reference to your federal student loan. I need to discuss your repayment options with some new changes that have taken affect recently, so if you could please be sure to give me a call back, my number is 866-295-9119 and um I’m going to give your reference number if you would please have this handy when you call back that will make things just a lot easier. Your reference number is [6 digit number]. Thank you.”
I’ve had that same message several times on my home answering machine. I don’t have any student loans so I knew it was a scam. What I found interesting is that the voice on my message sounded legit not one of those machine voices.
Exactly, mom60. Her voice sounded legit, and I played back the message thinking maybe she had dialed a wrong number, because we also have no student loans.
It is expected tat for 2019, almost half the calls you receive will be scam calls. That means every other call you get.
Action items:
get Nomorobo or some other facsimile
my strategy is simple - if someone calls that is not on my contact list, it goes to voicemail. If a message is not left then it gets blocked and reported to Nomorobo.
Nomorobo does not work everywhere. We can’t get it here.
On my cell…I don’t answer unless it is a familiar caller.
We don’t have caller ID, so we just don’t answer the house phone until a speaker talks. Then we pick up if it’s familiar. But really…no one calls us on that phone but scammers and telemarketers and politicians. We only have it as it is a “bundle” which significantly reduces our internet cost.
I’m sick of scammers. I get tons of scam emails too. Sick of those too.
We have a call blocker through Spectrum for our business line. It has worked pretty well until recently, but the last few weeks a bunch of calls are getting through. SO annoying to be interrupted constantly while trying to work. We have to answer the phone in case it’s a potential client.
Any unsolicited, unexpected calls from strangers seeking any info or requiring some immediate action on our part get ended within milliseconds, almost always before caller has chance to finish their bs. If the caller starts by using our name, we never respond with a “yes”, but may ask who they are, which 99.9999% to infinity of time is what also triggers us to end call.
I’d add to above that even if I got a call from say a credit card company I use wanting to clarify some recent charge, I’d politely hang up and call back on number on card. I would never, ever give out any personal info of any kind to an unsolicited, unexpected caller. I am constantly amazed at number of stories I read about these scams being so successful…
Yes, my folks have had many phone calls for HIbrother’s wife, Mrs HIbrother and HIbrother over the years. He hasn’t lived at that address for many, many decades and has never been married!
We still get mail addressed to the people who rented our home before we bought it over 3 decades ago!
We have Nomorobo and appreciate it, but it doesn’t block all calls. Spoofed calls get through (calls that appear to be coming from local numbers) and we get a lot of those. 3-5 daily.
I let all calls on the landline (an old one with a digital recorder) go to messages, and I only pick up if the caller leaving a message is someone I know.
I have Robo Killer and I almost never get spam texts, robo calls, or spoofed calls. Every now and then one sneaks through, but for the most part it has eliminated that problem from my life. Costs $2.99 a month, though.
The scam calling blocking software is not that dissimilar to anti-virus or malware software. The top dogs (in this case Nomorobo), the scammers will spend more effort in figuring out ways to get around their filters, whereas a lesser known company might be perceived to be better because scammers aren’t trying as hard to specifically get around their methodologies for filtering. In any case, it’s pretty much essential nowadays to have something as a blocker on your cell phone and your home phone.
