Scam phone calls....got one of the "can you hear me" calls

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sbwertz

sbwertz

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Joined
May 11, 2010
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Phoenix, AZ
Answered the phone and got the "can you hear me?" scam. Answered "What?" "I can't hear you!" They hung up. They are pfishing for you to say "YES" which they will record, then send you something and use the "yes" they recorded to "prove" you ordered it and bill you for it. There are a BUNCH of con artists out there this time of year. Beware of "attempted delivery" calls, texts, or emails. They are pfishing for your info. Got two for fake medicare scams today alone. I use NOMOROBO on my landline and SHOULD I ANSWER on my cell. Both eliminate most of the scam calls. But some still get through with spoofed phone numbers.
 
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That is a new one but I should not be surprised this probably has been used in different ways before. just never know today and this time of the year all bets are off.
 
sbwertz said:
Answered the phone and got the "can you hear me?" scam. Answered "What?" "I can't hear you!" They hung up. They are pfishing for you to say "YES" which they will record, then send you something and use the "yes" they recorded to "prove" you ordered it and bill you for it. There are a BUNCH of con artists out there this time of year. Beware of "attempted delivery" calls, texts, or emails. They are pfishing for your info. Got two for fake medicare scams today alone. I use NOMOROBO on my landline and SHOULD I ANSWER on my cell. Both eliminate most of the scam calls. But some still get through with spoofed phone numbers.
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I don't answer numbers I don't recognize. If someone leaves a message I usually look up the number before I decide to all back.
 
I don't answer calls I don't recognize, they can leave a voicemail..of course most don't so that tells you something. Lately, I've also been getting an inordinate amount of phishing emails in my throw away account, so annoying. Don't folks have better things/honest things to do?
 
Our landline has a caller ID. If we don't know it, we don't answer it. Delete any VM and the number. Our TV has teh number show up as a Scam number. Again same thing. Anyone know how effective the government's Do Not Call List is doing?
 
Hippie3180 said:
I don't answer calls I don't recognize, they can leave a voicemail..of course most don't so that tells you something. Lately, I've also been getting an inordinate amount of phishing emails in my throw away account, so annoying. Don't folks have better things/honest things to do?
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They get the numbers from various sources with a great amount bought from companies that sell your personal information, usually email addresses and phone numbers you have to use when you buy online, etc. I have a personal email account I use sparingly so I very few spams on it. When I order something or for general use I have a free Gmail account. This way when I clean out the accumulated crap, it only takes a minute ot two. I mark the spam in all accounts as spam and they go directly into a spam file. I also have a free spam blocker and ad blocker on my phone with really works well.
 
IF using Apple Mail, and it appears to be from someone or company that you should know or get normal email from - by clicking on that name, it will reveal who it is really from.

For instance, here is a fake "Amazon.com" scam: From: "Amazon.com" - but by clicking on the name reveals the hidden sender that it is from: "yoursa@lourezik.com"
OBVIOUSLY fake.

And another one:
CVS Pharmacy:
From: CVS (click on the name CVS reveals the hidden sender: tgvyi13128@pocheta.lm05.jp.net
 
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Velcrodog said:
They get the numbers from various sources with a great amount bought from companies that sell your personal information, usually email addresses and phone numbers you have to use when you buy online, etc. I have a personal email account I use sparingly so I very few spams on it. When I order something or for general use I have a free Gmail account. This way when I clean out the accumulated crap, it only takes a minute ot two. I mark the spam in all accounts as spam and they go directly into a spam file. I also have a free spam blocker and ad blocker on my phone with really works well.
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My main email is gmail, but I also have a yahoo account. Whenever anything makes me enter an email I use the yahoo account. It just sits there and collects spam.
 
Woodchipper said:
Our landline has a caller ID. If we don't know it, we don't answer it. Delete any VM and the number. Our TV has teh number show up as a Scam number. Again same thing. Anyone know how effective the government's Do Not Call List is doing?
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It's a waste of effort to put your information on the list.
 
Woodchipper said:
Our landline has a caller ID. If we don't know it, we don't answer it. Delete any VM and the number. Our TV has teh number show up as a Scam number. Again same thing. Anyone know how effective the government's Do Not Call List is doing?
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Caller ID is not reliable. In 5 minutes I can make my phone number appear as any number I want. I get these scams that show MY NUMBER as the caller.

The do not call list is great for the scammers. They know these are real phone numbers that they can call. 🤬
To get rid of these robo scams, make the carriers responsible for 50% of the fine. Did you know there IS a fine for each robo call?
 
Hippie3180 said:
It's a waste of effort to put your information on the list.
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We did it when it first came out. Obviously another waste of time since it's not enforced. I called my phone service and found I can only block 50 phone numbers. I get that many in one month. Same with emails...250 blocks. I just delete them.
 
randyrls said:
Caller ID is not reliable. In 5 minutes I can make my phone number appear as any number I want. I get these scams that show MY NUMBER as the caller.

The do not call list is great for the scammers. They know these are real phone numbers that they can call. 🤬
To get rid of these robo scams, make the carriers responsible for 50% of the fine. Did you know there IS a fine for each robo call?
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Get "Should I Answer" It is free and gets rid of about 90 percent of the scam calls. The ones that get through you can block and they can't use that number for you again. On a landline, NOMOROBO does the same thing.
 
randyrls said:
Caller ID is not reliable. In 5 minutes I can make my phone number appear as any number I want. I get these scams that show MY NUMBER as the caller.

The do not call list is great for the scammers. They know these are real phone numbers that they can call. 🤬
To get rid of these robo scams, make the carriers responsible for 50% of the fine. Did you know there IS a fine for each robo call?
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How does it work to get your carrier fined? Just curious. Is that what happens when you "report" them? I have a filter that me carrier provides.
 
Hippie3180 said:
How does it work to get your carrier fined? Just curious. Is that what happens when you "report" them? I have a filter that me carrier provides.
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The carriers make heaps of money from the calls. Their saying they can't do anything is just protecting their cash stream. Most of the robo / spam companies are in other countries outside the USA controls. The carriers ARE NOT! So give them incentive to block those calls.

Even the facilitator companies inside the US just close shop as "Telecom Services, LLC" and the next day open up as "Communications Facilities, LLC". They lease everything, so have no assets.

If I were being really, really, MEAN, I'd also send $10 to the customer who received the call.

PS. If I know it is a robo caller, I answer the phone, "Pennsylvania State Police Fraud Unit, Officer Johnson speaking". Click, buzzzzzzzzzzz.

OK, "angry me" go back to sleep now......😴

Many years ago I started getting calls from people looking for "Hill Productions". After a dozen or so of telling people "Sorry wrong number", I stopped one of them and asked where they got the number? Answer: A brochure that the company handed out at a media conference. I looked up the correct number and called them. They said the number was a old number they had and when they ran out of brochures they would be reprinted with the correct number. My response was, "I am a problem solver. You have no incentive to ensure your customers have the correct number. I am about to provide you with incentive. The calls I get for you will not be told this is the wrong number, they will be told you are no longer in business." The calls ended.....
 
This is a persistent issue - it has consumed hundreds of hours of my time since I retired. But I will say that there have been one or two instances where I know my efforts contributed to a particularly nasty racket getting shut down, so in that sense it was fulfilling.

Our landline service offered an option whereby any incoming call would simultaneously ring on a cell phone. My cell phone has a feature that if the calling number is not associated with an entry in the my 'address book' (contacts list), the call is automatically diverted directly to voice mail. So if an unknown person calls, the landline rings once, and then caller has to either leave a voice mail message or give up. Most robocallers just give up.

A couple of weeks ago, we took it one step further and retired the land line. Wife and I both have cell phones that we have been using more than the landline, so this was not a difficult step. Most people who call us regularly call our cell phones. Obviously, the problem is those occasional callers who traditionally used the land line number, and the challenge is to let them know of the change. I will be included a note in our annual Christmas letter letting our friends know, which leave only those businesses that occasionally call us - such as doctor's offices reminding us of upcoming appointments. But eventually, those will also get the message.
 
I use a product called YouMail on my phone. I very, very rarely ever actually pick up calls from scammers as a result. The product takes care of 99.9% of it all. It has an extensive list of known scammers that is being updated constantly by all the users as well as the company itself. You can also set up your own block lists, etc. The app also has a call screening feature to ensure that only legitimate callers can get through to you.

www.youmail.com

Visual Voicemail with the Best Spam Blocking | YouMail

How to get spam call protection, smarter visual voicemail, virtual assistants, and virtual numbers on your iPhone & Android devices with YouMail.
www.youmail.com www.youmail.com

If you are having a hard time with scammers, IMO, this is well worth it.
 
I checked with Spectrum about blocking calls. I can only block 48 calls which is a drop in the barrel. If we are watching TV, the number comes up on the screen. The caller ID will note SPAM. We wait to see if they will leave a message. 99% of the time, it's a telemarketer. Again, with the landline or cell, if it's not a recognizable number, we wait for a VM. Then we can decide to delete. I have received calls that come up as a local town. They are getting smarter!
 
Woodchipper said:
I checked with Spectrum about blocking calls. I can only block 48 calls which is a drop in the barrel. If we are watching TV, the number comes up on the screen. The caller ID will note SPAM. We wait to see if they will leave a message. 99% of the time, it's a telemarketer. Again, with the landline or cell, if it's not a recognizable number, we wait for a VM. Then we can decide to delete. I have received calls that come up as a local town. They are getting smarter!
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I never, ever answer anymore unless its someone in my personal contacts list, which is far smaller than it used to be.

If I don't know the number, or if its similar to a number I know but not actually someone I know (which is another thing these nasty scammers do!!), I let em leave a message. If for some reason they actually do (the scammers that pretend to be collection agencies ALWAYS do!!!), then I let YouMail handle it. YouMail will automatically deal with most of the crap calls that are known scammers for me. If for some reason they don't know for sure, YouMail flags as spam, and I can check em out later. If it IS a scam, I can actually flag it as a scam, which goes into the YouMail database, and if more people also flag it, then it will be automatically blocked entirely in the future.

If someone really needs to get ahold of me, they can leave a legit message, which I'll listen to and call back if I feel its truly legit. Which, these days, seems to be exceptionally rare!

Scammers, Spammers, Phishers... They have utterly ruined most forms of common communication. It's really sad.
 
rixstix said:
I've seen a significant reduction since STIR SHAKEN has been implemented.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STIR/SHAKEN
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Interesting! I hadn't heard of this before, but I'm glad to know there are efforts to curb the insanity. As it really does seem to have reached insane levels a couple of years ago. Ironically, the single largest contributor to "robocalls" that I've ever gotten, is from government officials or prospective government officials themselves. :P Ironic.
 
When asked is this Frank or whatever .. my reply is What can I do for you .. or how can I help you? I'm done saying yes.
If asked can you hear me I'll ask what can I do for you. Might also say we have a bad connection can I have your number. Any doubts I'm hanging up.
 
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