Poll of the Day > Any one else getting constant scam attempts?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Recently I've been getting calls out of the blue every 2-4 days about some IRS debt collector. Upon checking personal records, I have no debt of any type to any one. Before that, it was a some "sheriff" wanting to contact for some sort of investigation. I would have taken that seriously if it weren't for the fact that 3 other of my neighbors received the exact same call, with 2 others prior. Now some people keep calling about some census and at one point visited at 8 at night. Neighbors had similar run in's with these same census people and upon asking for identification, they left when none could be procured up or to prove they were official. Has anyone else suddenly had an increase in scam attempt's? Or is this problem limited to Washington state?
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i had this call today that sounded like a realistic voice with maybe 5% robot.

"sorry ill call you back"

it kinda seemed like a very realistic humanoid robot you can't tell until it starts sparking up from being overworked.

Ya, it's always texts that are like "so-and-so overcharged your account random money! click this suspicious link to claim it"
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Are you answering these calls? Because I'd recommend not doing that. I get spam/scam calls pretty often, but I don't answer them and, for me at least, they never leave voicemails. I can usually tell by the number alone if it's legit, but I just don't answer from unrecognized numbers, period. If it's something legit and important they'll leave a message.

Rockies posted...

Are you answering these calls? Because I'd recommend not doing that. I get spam/scam calls pretty often, but I don't answer them and, for me at least, they never leave voicemails. I can usually tell by the number alone if it's legit, but I just don't answer from unrecognized numbers, period. If it's something legit and important they'll leave a message.

I answered them out of frustration as they took up the voice messages (and made sifting through voice messages a pain as I need to keep an ear out for important ones). And when I do pick up, it's just silence. Probably bots that only leave messages when no one picks up. Most of them have come from California and Florida(even though the sheriff caller one claimed to be from a local area when the number clearly isn't)
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If you know it's a scam have fun with them, waste their time and lead them on, that's if you get a response when you answer the phone. As you mention the line going dead after you answer in your last post is that most of the time that's the case as they're automatically dialing hundreds of people at the same time. If the lines dead when you answer chances are they're already talking to someone else. Which is why if you do get a reply when you answer the phone wasting their time can be a fun way to pass your own time.
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800notes.com is a good site to check up on suspicious numbers. I tend to get a cluster of them for about a week and then they die down for a few weeks and start again. They're always from unfamiliar area codes and they never leave messages.
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HelIWithoutSin posted...

800notes.com is a good site to check up on suspicious numbers. I tend to get a cluster of them for about a week and then they die down for a few weeks and start again. They're always from unfamiliar area codes and they never leave messages.

Ah! Thank you! This should prove very useful for discerning numbers! Though, scammers keep changing their numbers to get around the call block :/
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all the ones i'm getting, very frequently mind you, all say, "we're with quicken loans and my name is Jane, can you hear me okay?"

i have exactly zero loans out, and the only phone number i give out to places and stuff is my google number, not my actual number.

and by very frequently, i'm talking this nonsense



every day. from multiple numbers. all saying the same fucking thing.

and i've tried staying on the line, but giving non confirmation answers in case that's what they're trying to get. and they all just end the call after asking "can you hear me okay?"
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I know people IRL who have falling for phone scams. One woman even went and bought pre-paid gift cards for the fake IRS guy.
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Scams are like figuring out if you're in a dream or not. If you have to ask, then yes.

About 95% of the calls that I get that aren't on my list or recognized callers are some obvious scammer

They usually never leave a message, but if I look it up I find reports of scams
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I get like 20 calls with spoofed numbers every week.
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I get tons of robocalls.

Stopped answering my phone for unknown numbers. If its important and legitimate, theyll leave a message. Have never known a scammer to leave voicemail.
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My house has been getting spam calls that are somewhat close to our actual phone numbers. X_X

ugh.
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pigfish99 posted...

My house has been getting spam calls that are somewhat close to our actual phone numbers. X_X

ugh.

Yeah it's some new kinda spoofing they have been doing.
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Far-Queue posted...

I get tons of robocalls.

Stopped answering my phone for unknown numbers. If its important and legitimate, theyll leave a message. Have never known a scammer to leave voicemail.

This, except that fake Internal Revenue will leave threatening messages.
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I'm what you call a scambaiter, where I use a fabricated number and go after the scammers. There are websites where you can post the number.

I can PM you if you want so me and some other scambaiters can mess with them.
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I played along with one the other day before asking him if he liked stealing money from old ladies. He did the usually offended I am not a scammer routine, but eventually started telling me he likes doing it because it is easy money and he knows he wont get caught.
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I live in a different state now and kept my old area code and phone # for simplicity. So other than people I knew, I seldom got calls from the old area code.
The past like year or so, I've gotten calls from the old area code pretty much daily. It's always been spam when I answered, so I stopped even answering calls from numbers I don't recognize w/ my old area code.
They must be spoofing w/ VoIP, and it's pretty fucking annoying. Wish the FCC would go after them, but especially w/ the current admin, they're pretty toothless when it comes to protecting citizens, not that they had the resources to handle it before, either. Really sucks, all those spammers should go to jail for violating the Do Not Call list.

jayj350 posted...

pigfish99 posted...

My house has been getting spam calls that are somewhat close to our actual phone numbers. X_X

ugh.

Yeah it's some new kinda spoofing they have been doing.

I get this too, it's super weird. Same area code and same first 3 digits, with the last 4 off just by a little bit.
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That one is weird to me. It might actually be effective if you have a landline phone, since those can have similar prefixes in the same area, but since I use a cell phone it's just totally obvious that it's a scam.

Most of them tend to have numbers without a lot of variation, too, which gives them away. I guess that's supposed to make it look more legit? I don't know, doesn't make sense to me. You call 800 numbers, they don't call you.

Superlinkbro posted...

I'm what you call a scambaiter, where I use a fabricated number and go after the scammers. There are websites where you can post the number.

I can PM you if you want so me and some other scambaiters can mess with them.

Well, if they're going to drive people crazy, might as well toil the bait to them as well

Rockies posted...

That one is weird to me. It might actually be effective if you have a landline phone, since those can have similar prefixes in the same area, but since I use a cell phone it's just totally obvious that it's a scam.

Most of them tend to have numbers without a lot of variation, too, which gives them away. I guess that's supposed to make it look more legit? I don't know, doesn't make sense to me. You call 800 numbers, they don't call you.

Yeah, that was the case. They always had similar area codes for a bit but different last 4 digits or different ares codes, same last 4 digits. Every time a number is blocked, oh, here comes an alt number.
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Oh, that isn't by what I meant by a lack of variation. I mean that the last four digits will be 4000 or something, but non-scammy phone numbers tend to have three or four unique numbers in the last four, like 3783. And the first three will often be an 800 or 600 or 888 number. In this case I'm talking about something separate from where they use the same first three digits are your number

https://www.nomorobo.com/
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Some man called me insisting that I called him even though I hadn't. I told him, I hadn't called anyone (confirmed in my log) and he wouldn't believe me and started yelling at me. Then when I hung up he texted me yelling at me some more and I blocked his number. It was really strange.
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I keep getting voicemails from an unknown number stating they want to talk to me about charges to my electric bill. I don't have an electric bill.
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How do you block a number

Rockies posted...

How do you block a number

On my android phone it was just an option in the menu of my text conversation. It's also there if I go to the call log, click on 'details' and click the "..." menu in the corner
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Just get a new phone number. That works for me.

GhostGiblet posted...

Some man called me insisting that I called him even though I hadn't. I told him, I hadn't called anyone (confirmed in my log) and he wouldn't believe me and started yelling at me. Then when I hung up he texted me yelling at me some more and I blocked his number. It was really strange.

Criminals are spoofing your number when they scam people.
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ExtremeLuchador posted...

I know people IRL who have falling for phone scams. One woman even went and bought pre-paid gift cards for the fake IRS guy.

i think if youre older than 50 and you fall for that, you deserve it.

And yeah, Ive gotten so many spam calls in the last two weeks. You guys ever had that one where its a girl saying her headset fell off at the start?
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Yesterday within a couple hours I received 5 phone calls. My phone would ring once and then they would hang up. None of the numbers were recognized and my service only labeled one of them as possible spam (background turns red)
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DirtBasedSoap posted...

You guys ever had that one where its a girl saying her headset fell off at the start?

Patton Oswalt even worked a bit about that one into his new standup.
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hopefully the FCC helps get rid of these spam/scam attempts. (they won't.)
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My mom was for a while about me. She legit thought I had a warrant out for my arrest, but it was a scammer.

Lately I've been getting phone calls from real people saying that they had a missed call from me, yet I clearly did not call them.

DirtBasedSoap posted...

ExtremeLuchador posted...

I know people IRL who have falling for phone scams. One woman even went and bought pre-paid gift cards for the fake IRS guy.

i think if youre older than 50 and you fall for that, you deserve it.

And yeah, Ive gotten so many spam calls in the last two weeks. You guys ever had that one where its a girl saying her headset fell off at the start?

The most common one by far around where I live for a while

fettster777 posted...

My mom was for a while about me. She legit thought I had a warrant out for my arrest, but it was a scammer.

Lately I've been getting phone calls from real people saying that they had a missed call from me, yet I clearly did not call them.

When the bots don't work, they move on to real people to try and instill fear. The only thing these scammers are getting from me is anger.
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ExtremeLuchador posted...

GhostGiblet posted...

Some man called me insisting that I called him even though I hadn't. I told him, I hadn't called anyone (confirmed in my log) and he wouldn't believe me and started yelling at me. Then when I hung up he texted me yelling at me some more and I blocked his number. It was really strange.

Criminals are spoofing your number when they scam people.

I read something like the same thing. Apparently there's nothing people at my phone company can do about it.
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