The use of robocalls and emails to perpetrate scams, phishing and fraud seems to have gone wild. Despite having every phone number I own or use registered with the government do not call list, my phones ring of the hook with robocalls and texts. The most common "reason" for the call is to offer some sort of credit or loan product, the second most common are texts from Real Estate agents. Blocking these numbers makes you feel like you've done something productive but the reality is blocking does nothing because the robo-system does not rely on actual numbers (thank you Google), they just grab a temporary phone number for the call being placed. It used to be fun to spend hours messing with the person(s) making the unwanted calls but there aren't people attached to these calls/texts/emails. Perhaps the ultimate irony is that WE own all this wonderful tech so we can be connected at all times and never stop conducting the business of life...yet we are so plagued by unwanted calls we ignore any call whose number isn't in our personal phonebook. This means we are destined to play a game of cat and mouse whenever a "wanted" call comes in.
The flood of unwanted calls is a nuisance for sure but when the calls/texts and emails are being received for nefarious purposes it becomes a real problem. My aging clients are the ones most apt to fall for what I would think are obvious scams and phishing exercises aimed at stealing identities and emptying bank accounts. Several years ago it was a call to the old lady from a young sounding person "Grandma, I am stuck in mexico and they are going to put me in jail forever unless I pay them $10k TODAY. Can you send me money?" Fearing the grandson they didn't know they had was going to jail they would do whatever it took to send funds. I personally saw this affect more than one of my clients, fortunately I hated their unknown grandspawn enough to kill the transfer. Now, its a computer voice from the social security department warning you that your number has been compromised and you need to call back and give me all of your information to get it unlocked.
I thought I would start this thread as a place where we can share the various calls, scams and fraud we encounter. Perhaps by sharing our own experiences we can keep the rest of the cadre from falling prey. I wish we could list the names, numbers, email addresses, mug shots etc of the perps but doing so would be gong too far. We wouldn't want to "expose" innocent people or inadvertently slander upstanding folk. So DO NOT share identifying information, just the context of the scam and how it can be recognized or avoided.
***DO NOT list specific names, emails, numbers or identifying information***
The flood of unwanted calls is a nuisance for sure but when the calls/texts and emails are being received for nefarious purposes it becomes a real problem. My aging clients are the ones most apt to fall for what I would think are obvious scams and phishing exercises aimed at stealing identities and emptying bank accounts. Several years ago it was a call to the old lady from a young sounding person "Grandma, I am stuck in mexico and they are going to put me in jail forever unless I pay them $10k TODAY. Can you send me money?" Fearing the grandson they didn't know they had was going to jail they would do whatever it took to send funds. I personally saw this affect more than one of my clients, fortunately I hated their unknown grandspawn enough to kill the transfer. Now, its a computer voice from the social security department warning you that your number has been compromised and you need to call back and give me all of your information to get it unlocked.
I thought I would start this thread as a place where we can share the various calls, scams and fraud we encounter. Perhaps by sharing our own experiences we can keep the rest of the cadre from falling prey. I wish we could list the names, numbers, email addresses, mug shots etc of the perps but doing so would be gong too far. We wouldn't want to "expose" innocent people or inadvertently slander upstanding folk. So DO NOT share identifying information, just the context of the scam and how it can be recognized or avoided.
***DO NOT list specific names, emails, numbers or identifying information***
