Spam/Scam phone calls?

CoyoteChris · Aug 19, 2018

Do people in non-US countries get lots of spam/scam phone calls on their cell phones and land lines?
I use an app on my cell that does a good job of stopping many of these calls but I have a simple land line
with no caller ID and I just monitor all incoming calls on the answering machine before picking up.

Alex D · Aug 19, 2018

I don´t give my phone number to anyone except for work and very close friends. I always refuse to put it down when the internet asks me to, for important sign ups, I have a trash phone, that receives calls all day from people who try to get in touch with someone I never heard of. Best was, someone from India wanted to sell a car... he was confident that I was the buyer, since he had my number.... Someone also spoke on my mailbox, that I can pick up my child from kindergarten now... didn´t know I had a child, but it was amusing!

Anyways,

besides my friends who are mostly athletes and not easy with giving away their numbers either, plus the occasional work place - nobody has that number. Therefore, no phone calls be it spam or whatever.

If you keep your number sacred, nothing should happen to you.

iluvtodd · Aug 20, 2018

If I don't recognize the phone number, I don't answer the call. I do check to see if there is a voice message. If the same phone number keeps coming up, I block it.

Ducky · Aug 20, 2018

Robocalls are the bane of my existence.

Dee4707 · Aug 21, 2018

iluvtodd said:
If I don't recognize the phone number, I don't answer the call. I do check to see if there is a voice message. If the same phone number keeps coming up, I block it.

I do the same thing, I get so mad when the phone rings and it's a robo call, upset that it's not the business call I've been waiting for.

Sabrina · Aug 21, 2018

I get a lot of spam or advertising calls. I only answer calls from family or friends. The bad thing is they started to also call my cell phone. If I check the numbers most are duct cleaning or roof mending, but I live in a high rise building, LOL.

CoyoteChris · Aug 22, 2018

Alex D said:
I don´t give my phone number to anyone except for work and very close friends. I always refuse to put it down when the internet asks me to, for important sign ups, I have a trash phone, that receives calls all day from people who try to get in touch with someone I never heard of. Best was, someone from India wanted to sell a car... he was confident that I was the buyer, since he had my number.... Someone also spoke on my mailbox, that I can pick up my child from kindergarten now... didn´t know I had a child, but it was amusing!

Anyways,

besides my friends who are mostly athletes and not easy with giving away their numbers either, plus the occasional work place - nobody has that number. Therefore, no phone calls be it spam or whatever.

If you keep your number sacred, nothing should happen to you.

In the US, you dont have to give your number out to get spam/scam calls. The crooks use a "random" number generating machine.

CoyoteChris · Aug 22, 2018

Sabrina said:
I get a lot of spam or advertising calls. I only answer calls from family or friends. The bad thing is they started to also call my cell phone. If I check the numbers most are duct cleaning or roof mending, but I live in a high rise building, LOL.

OK, so it looks like in Canada you get the same kind of Spam/scam. It can be hard to tell the difference. In the US, "do not call" lists are worthless.

CoyoteChris · Aug 22, 2018

Dee4707 said:
I do the same thing, I get so mad when the phone rings and it's a robo call, upset that it's not the business call I've been waiting for.

Exactly. They are stealing from all of us a little bit at a time.

CoyoteChris · Aug 22, 2018

Ducky said:
Robocalls are the bane of my existence.

They sure waste a bunch of Americans' time. So I was wondering if some country has figured out a technology to catch the crooks and block them at least. I have a friend who swears that if he answers his spam/scam calls by saying , "Govt fraud Hotline" his junk calls go down!

brens78 · Aug 22, 2018

Yes in Australia we do :scowl:, if I hear a very heavy Asian or Indian accent I just hang up!

Ducky · Aug 22, 2018

CoyoteChris said:
They sure waste a bunch of Americans' time. So I was wondering if some country has figured out a technology to catch the crooks and block them at least. I have a friend who swears that if he answers his spam/scam calls by saying , "Govt fraud Hotline" his junk calls go down!

I don't think so. A big problem is that for scam callers is that the rewards far outweigh the risk. It's easy to set up shop somewhere else and it's very hard to get caught. Plus, at least in the States, auto-calling has been deregulated and there are business groups actively lobbying against any regulations as it would hurt legitimate businesses trying to reach customers.

Mathman · Aug 22, 2018

"This is the Internal Revenue Service. Federal Marshals have been dispatched and are already on their way to your house to arrest you for your back due taxes. To call them off, rush to the corner drug store and buy $200 worth of Target gift cards and then call us back to give us the serial numbers."

heyang · Aug 22, 2018

I've turned the ringer off on my cellphone so that the robocalls don't disrupt any meetings, etc while I'm at work. If it's someone I know, their name should pop up or the person can leave a message. This is especially critical considering that our CIO makes people stand up and dance if the person's phone rings during one of her meetings.

Marketing has actually started calling my work phone# too , which is a bit harder to ignore because it could be another employee calling my work # from their home now that we have a work from home allowance. If it is a marketing call , I tell them this is a place of business and hang up on them.

Problem with robo calls is that you can't tell them 'I'm on the do not call list' and report to the FCC.

ancientpeas · Aug 22, 2018

Unfortunately it is often older people who fall victim to these type of scams. They don't seem to know that Revenue Canada does not contact people by phone. They send letters and ask you to call them.

We get air duct cleaning calls all the time. And I once had some person with a very thick, hard to understand accent, tell me astronomy and astrology are the same things. I laughed so hard and hung up.

phoinos · Sep 12, 2018

ancientpeas said:
Unfortunately it is often older people who fall victim to these type of scams. They don't seem to know that Revenue Canada does not contact people by phone.

It really is scary and sad how many people will fall for these types of scams, apparently not realizing that any legitimate law enforcement agency or the IRS will never request payment via gift cards...

ramurphy2005 · Sep 26, 2018

My favorite is the call that showed up on the caller ID as "Illegal Scam." That number has shown up several times, and we just ignore it, but I got a good laugh out of it.

NanaPat · Sep 26, 2018

ramurphy2005 said:
My favorite is the call that showed up on the caller ID as "Illegal Scam." That number has shown up several times, and we just ignore it, but I got a good laugh out of it.

Maybe somebody put it in your phone book with that name, so you'd recognize it. If a number is in my phone's directory, that name overrides the name assigned by the phone company. So my phone shows (daughter's first name) HOME, and that is definitely not how the phone company identifies her.

Dee4707 · Sep 26, 2018

heyang said:
I've turned the ringer off on my cellphone so that the robocalls don't disrupt any meetings, etc while I'm at work. If it's someone I know, their name should pop up or the person can leave a message. This is especially critical considering that our CIO makes people stand up and dance if the person's phone rings during one of her meetings.

Heyang, I think your CIO is pretty smart. I love it.

I like it when someone's phone rings in church and the person is panicking to find the nearest exit while the phone is still ringing with some crazy wild song. One time my pastor said....answer it and we will wait until you're done. We all started saying who is it??? What'd they say?? Needless to say the person was totally embarrassed. We all thought it was funny.

Problem with robo calls is that you can't tell them 'I'm on the do not call list' and report to the FCC.

A friend of mine uses a whistle, she said there was an actual person on the other end and said a curse word and hung up on her. :laugh:

ramurphy2005 · Sep 27, 2018

NanaPat said:
Maybe somebody put it in your phone book with that name, so you'd recognize it. If a number is in my phone's directory, that name overrides the name assigned by the phone company. So my phone shows (daughter's first name) HOME, and that is definitely not how the phone company identifies her.

It's definitely something that just sort of showed up on the caller ID as it was identified by the program from the phone company without any input from any of us.

We do have phone numbers saved in contacts, but it's only numbers for family and close friends.

Spam/Scam phone calls?

CoyoteChris

Alex D

iluvtodd

Ducky

Dee4707

Ice Is Slippery - Alexie Yagudin

Sabrina

CoyoteChris

CoyoteChris

CoyoteChris

CoyoteChris

brens78

Ducky

Mathman

heyang

ancientpeas

The Notorious SEW

phoinos

ramurphy2005

Unabashed Mainer

NanaPat

Dee4707

Ice Is Slippery - Alexie Yagudin

ramurphy2005

Unabashed Mainer

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