BEWARE - two scams

Beatrix Kiddo wrote:As a point I don't pick up my phone when I don't recognize the number. Then I google it. If they left a message, I google the message. This is on my cell phone.

At home, I get left messages like, some tax faults and fines, or collection, or credit fraud. I promptly delete the message.

One day XH picked up and talked (or I think he heard the voice mail and actually called back - just to check, that's his explanation). They said something about tax fraud and mailing fine. XH was like, I didn't get anything in mail. They said it was sent out but returned because of wrong address. XH asked for more validations, he got mad and began saying why he doesn't trust him and he will hold him accountable in court for disrespecting an officer and such. XH told him to never call back. They hung up on a bitter note. He then googled the number to hear similar stories.

Edit: Regarding computer virus... now that I think of it, I remember picking up that one a year or so ago. I had laughed and hung up. I read on FB some granny's computer was hacked and after the case resolved, she was paid back the $300 that was scammed out of her.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:i've been at the receiving end of two telephone scams currently running in the US by indians (not sure whether they are from  india or located right here).

1) person calls you at home and in a very stern voice tell you they are from the local county police department or federal bureau (notice the absence of the word investigation at the end) and say there is an arrest warrant in your name and that you should turn yourself in or that you'll be arrested at home within 45 mins (so nice of them to give me a warning ahead of time).  i first asked them what i was being arrested for and the guy got very angry.   i told them to come home to get me and i'll make sure i have hot chai ready for them when they arrive.  later upon googling i found that this is some indian outfit trying to pull a scam.  apparently they'll threaten you and when they soften you up ask for some reasonable sounding amount as a fine to make the warrant go away.  we didn't get to that step.

FluteHolder wrote:I never pick up phone if the no is not known to me. Always google the telephone nos. Google is your modern guru/help. IF it is a scam it will be in google. If it is not in google, try yahoo/bing other search engines and phone no search sites. If they repeated call, you can block those nos.


IF it is NOT, you would get official letters. (no phone calls). 

FluteHolder wrote:You approach only if you cannot find an answer by yourself. You donot use chainsaw to cut an apple.

I have to put a video for this.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:i've been at the receiving end of two telephone scams currently running in the US by indians (not sure whether they are from  india or located right here).

1) person calls you at home and in a very stern voice tell you they are from the local county police department or federal bureau (notice the absence of the word investigation at the end) and say there is an arrest warrant in your name and that you should turn yourself in or that you'll be arrested at home within 45 mins (so nice of them to give me a warning ahead of time).  i first asked them what i was being arrested for and the guy got very angry.   i told them to come home to get me and i'll make sure i have hot chai ready for them when they arrive.  later upon googling i found that this is some indian outfit trying to pull a scam.  apparently they'll threaten you and when they soften you up ask for some reasonable sounding amount as a fine to make the warrant go away.  we didn't get to that step.

2) person calls you from a 0-00-000-000 number (that's how it showed up on my phone) and tell you that they are from the "computer department" (haha!) and that your computer has been sending viruses to their engineering department. the first time this happened, i asked the caller which company he was with and he let loose a barrage of swear words -- the whole enchilada - f, mf, sf in hindi.  i politely asked him if he was from haryana, delhi, or punjab.  the second time it was a woman with a strong bengali accent. same conversation, and then when we got to the point where i asked her which company she was employed with, she abruptly disconnected on me.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:

the next time, i'm going to open with asking them what they're wearing in a deep husky voice.