SCAM! SCAM! SCAM!

[Yenn]

Mobile phone reception makes me laugh. Wherever I go there seems to be poor recepton. At home I need a mobile so that I can verify when I pay a bill by internet. That is the only time I use my mobile phone. The only calls I have ever had on it were when it called up home and a friend while I was driving and it was with a signal. I don't know how it did it. I got a message on my home phone with a recording of the ABC news on it, That was what was on my car radio, when the phone was working away. I keep it in a wooden box now, so that it can't get out to play.

[spacesailor]

I ( once ) called my  son in law over a dozen times ! By pocket dialing.

spacesailor

[onetrack]

I've had friends call me accidentally. You answer the call, and all you hear is "rustle, rustle", or the sound of machines in a workshop, or somebody coughing or breathing heavily as they work.

I don't recall calling anyone accidentally myself, but I've pulled my phone from my pocket and found it on some game page, or Google Play store, asking me to download such and such app.

I never download or play games on my phone, I've got better things to fill my mind with.

Or you find Google's been recording your voice or movement noises as you work.

I hate that stunt, Google try everything they can to get a recording of your voice - including putting the microphone switch symbol right in the search menu, so you're always accidentally turning it on.

I've disabled the microphone feature, but you can't remove the microhone icon (on a Samsung Galaxy). Welcome to Big Brother.

[red750]

My biggest problem is that the mute button is right where my ear goes, so my call goes dead in the middle of a conversation. The other end doesn't know what's happened, so hangs up.

[Old Koreelah]

17 hours ago, Yenn said:

Mobile phone reception makes me laugh. Wherever I go there seems to be poor recepton. At home I need a mobile so that I can verify when I pay a bill by internet.

Reminds me of an old hermit who lived near our farm. He had an ancient ute, which he drove to town once per year, to get some petrol so he could drive to town again the next year…

17 hours ago, Yenn said:

 

That is the only time I use my mobile phone. The only calls I have ever had on it were when it called up home and a friend while I was driving and it was with a signal. I don't know how it did it…

Maybe we all should start calling Yenn!

[nomadpete]

I'd like to hear what is Yenn's secret. I'd welcome the absence of all my scam phone calls. Without them I'd only get half a dozen calls per annum

[onetrack]

Scam texts are the bane of my life. I must get a couple of dozen a week. Everything from fake deliveries to my Amazon account details needing updating, through to COVID-19 test results awaiting my input via a live link. Yesterday, I got a particularly nasty call saying it was from eBay, and my account had been debited for $299 because of a sale being returned. Then I had to "press 1, press 2", etc.

 

Strangely enough, I've not long had a Mexican buyer pull a scam on me, he bought a couple of new, expensive Caterpillar electrically-operated hydraulic valves off me - then claimed that they were faulty, and he wanted his money back.

Now, perhaps at a stretch, one could have been faulty (about a 0.00001% chance), but not both. The sale was worth $450, and rather than wait 3 months for the return of the "faulty" products, I offered him $100 compensation. So then he demanded $250 compensation - and I raised my offer to $150.

 

Then, going through eBays harsh return policies (which means the buyer wins every time), I found I could can the whole deal by refunding the buyer 50% of the monies paid, and no further negotiation is required, the deal is totally cancelled by eBay, and no further contact between buyer and seller is allowed.

So I did that, and then deleted Mexico as a country to deal with in my listings, I don't need to lose money dealing with sleazy Mexican scammers.

 

So I'm thinking the scam eBay call is possibly tied in with Mexican criminal gang activity, as these gangs are global operators, and infiltrate every area of our society.

[willedoo]

I get the occasional scam email, but since changing the mobile to Aldi over a year ago, haven't had a scam call or text since. No idea why that is, but used to get them regularly with Telstra.

[willedoo]

On 13/01/2022 at 1:09 PM, willedoo said:

I get the occasional scam email, but since changing the mobile to Aldi over a year ago, haven't had a scam call or text since. No idea why that is, but used to get them regularly with Telstra.

I jinxed myself with that post. Since posting I've started getting scam text messages trying to suck me in to clicking on a link.

[old man emu]

[onetrack]

I've been getting at least 2 or 3 calls or texts a day, telling me my NSW COVID test has returned positive, and I have to click a link to respond. The problem is, I haven't been in NSW for about 20 yrs.

The scammers always use this refering name, "Dylan Davies" or "Dillon Davis", probably thinking that it sounds close enough to a lot of names, to make people think it's for them.

Then, this morning, the missus showed me a missed call on her mobile, that left a fake COVID test message, virtually identical to the ones I've been getting.

I'm getting them regularly from the same number, 02 7209 7274, but the missus' scam call was from an 07 prefix number.

 

Edited January 18, 2022 by onetrack

[red750]

Just received a call on my wife's old mobile.

 

"This is (unintelligible) from Telstra Internet. How are you today?"

 

"So you are calling from Calcutta..."    Beeeeeep   Didn't get to finish the sentence before he hung up.

[facthunter]

Tell them you are his brother you are having sex with yourself and he should do the same.  I told one I didn't even know if he was Mahatma Ghandi and I think that was above his pay grade.. Nev

[onetrack]

SWMBO loves leading them on and asking if their mothers know they are carrying out activities involving stealing money from people. Most protest vociferously that they are not stealing money from people, but SWMBO just keeps coming back with, "Yes, you are, and you know you are stealing money from people. What would your mother think if she knew you were stealing like this?" 

A lot hang up after a short while, but one bloke got really abusive and nasty, and told her repeatedly, "F*** you Hard! F*** you Hard!!". She had to hang up on him!

 

I keep telling her she's wasting her time, but she's convinced that pricking their conscience has to work eventually - especially as they're nearly all wooden-god worshippers, and they all believe in Karma.

But I say to her, "You have to understand, these poor buggers probably have the unenviable choice of starving in a Calcutta gutter, or working at this job for $5 a day, just to keep body and soul together".

[willedoo]

I do one of two things. Either say nothing and see how long it takes for them to hang up, or if I feel like annoying them, I just repeat 'Hello' to everything they say. They think I'm deaf or senile and eventually give up.

[onetrack]

Well, I got a call from the Mastercard Fraud Dept this afternoon (from an Australian mobile number, to my mobile), and this gentleman kindly informed me that they'd noticed a $1000 fraudulent transaction  had been carried out on my card.

 

I must say, I got very annoyed with this scammer, and called him a BS-artist and a criminal. But he vehemently denied he was a criminal - and I repeated that he was, and also added, "By the Great God Vishna, I pray that you will be re-incarnated as a cockroach, an after-life punishment you richly deserve!"

 

But right about then, he told me to "Get f***ed!!". So it appears, he really wasn't from Mastercard - and I was right!

[Jerry_Atrick]

You'd be surprised at how many payments against most cards are automatically stopped and the holders are not even told about. They will only tell you about the ones they think could be bad. When they call, they should give you a nu ber to call. Verify it before you call, anbd, on a land line, verify you have a dial tome before dialing. Scammers will impersonate the bank, tell you to call the nunber, but not hang up, leaving your land line connectedd to them..

[Bruce Tuncks]

My understanding is that the longer you keep them on the line, the more you cost them and the more likely you will not be called again.

 

Personally, I blame the ATO etc. I think they sort of like having their victi.... err... customers, live in fear.

As has been said, how can you blame an underpaid Indian? One time, I was playing around with a caller when she burst into tears, apologising and saying " this was the only job I could get".

[Bruce Tuncks]

There was a couple from out gym class who got a call, pretending to be from the ATO, saying how their names were on an arrest list. ( an immediate payment would fix this).

We told them that the real ATO would never do that, but how do I know they wouldn't? They should do a LOT more advertising in stuff that retirees can afford to read.

[red750]

1 hour ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

My understanding is that the longer you keep them on the line, the more you cost them

No Bruce, they hang up leaving a missed call, and if you return the call, they keep you on the line running up your bill. It's like a 1300 call, showing a different number, and the accrued call cost is returned to them. Like the TV/radio competitions where a lucky caller wins a prize paid for by the calls of non-winners at premium rates. Only thing is, the scammers don't pay a prize.

[spacesailor]

YOU call them back !,

Then hang up immediately.

So, they can recall you again.

AND the A T O , just comes, demands payment, if not forthcoming puts a lock on your premises. 

Not even 24 hours to get money from a loan shark.

spacesailor

Edited June 18, 2022 by spacesailor
Spelling

[Bruce Tuncks]

Yes Red , sometimes you go to answer a call and find they have left already. I think that they have automatic diallers and as soon as a real person answers, they stop dialling the rest.

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

If the ATO ever ring me for real, they will be taken for scammers.

[Marty_d]

Which is why they don't ring people.  Same as "Telstra Technical Department".  My standard response to all of them is laugh and hang up.  Life's too short to waste it engaging with the buggers.

[Jerry_Atrick]

6 hours ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

If the ATO ever ring me for real, they will be taken for scammers.

What do you mean, "taken for scammers." They are the ultimate scammers...