Hey, who do I report this crap to??

No, you did not just blow off a free $200. You just blew off a free checking-account emptying.

The FCC takes complaints about these things online, I'm pretty sure. And get your number on the federal Do No Call list - if you're in the US.

You did the right thing. The Feds certainly don't pick out phone numbers in order to give away free money.

And you can report it, but . . . if people don't know by now not to hand out personal information over the phone or Internet, I'm not sure anything or any government agency can save them.

MidnightMuse said:

No, you did not just blow off a free $200. You just blew off a free checking-account emptying.

The FCC takes complaints about these things online, I'm pretty sure. And get your number on the federal Do No Call list - if you're in the US.

Click to expand...

the do not call list only works with legit business and tele-marketers. it does nothing to protect against scammers. call the better business bureau in you city and they can tell you exactly what to do. in the mean time, buy a very loud horn or whistle and use it the next time you're offered "free money"

Well yes, Deacon has a very good point. You only get the legit people to stop calling.

The other ones are fodder for a really good mess-with-their-heads time

You go Christine! I would have played the game and given her a fake account #. Just because.

***There is an organization around here. The phone number is local, but they handle complaints nationally. The woman (Shirley) that runs it especially loves to out the scams like the one tried on you. It is called “Call for Action.” The phone # is 301-652-4357. They are open from 9am to noon tues wed, thurs. www.wtop.com/?nid=63
Click on ‘submit a complaint’ and fill out the form. They are badgers, I tell you, rabid badgers.

Now, I have 2 ways of handling this crap. Well in addition to reporting them to Call for....
1) I give them fake SSN and Bank Account Numbers. I keep around a checkbook from a bank that went out of business in the 80's and I give them that info. I make sure my address is correct ( look up the address of the Treasury department, or a local gay bar, and make sure they have that as your correct address.)

2)The other way, the conversation goes like this.
"Hello. I'm trying to verify your bank information. It seems someone is trying to withdraw a large amont of money from your account. Can you give me your account number for verification"

"Are you wearing pants?"
"Excuse me?"
"Are you naked?"
"Huh?"
" I want to know what you look like."
"I'm trying to verify..."
"I want to know if your _____is as hot as you sound."
"Your bank account number"
"I've got my hands on my_____"

Get the picture???

Women hang up real fast. Men actually try to get the account info for a few before they give up. Except a male friend said for him, the men hang up faster than the women.

Believe me, it is a real hoot.

writerterri said:

You go Christine! I would have played the game and given her a fake account #. Just because.

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My luck the fake account number would be someone else's REAL number and I'd get arrested as an accomplice.

Jaycinth said:

***There is an organization around here. The phone number is local, but they handle complaints nationally. The woman (Shirley) that runs it especially loves to out the scams like the one tried on you. It is called “Call for Action.” The phone # is 301-652-4357. They are open from 9am to noon tues wed, thurs. www.wtop.com/?nid=63
Click on ‘submit a complaint’ and fill out the form. They are badgers, I tell you, rabid badgers.

Now, I have 2 ways of handling this crap. Well in addition to reporting them to Call for....
1) I give them fake SSN and Bank Account Numbers. I keep around a checkbook from a bank that went out of business in the 80's and I give them that info. I make sure my address is correct ( look up the address of the Treasury department, or a local gay bar, and make sure they have that as your correct address.)

2)The other way, the conversation goes like this.
"Hello. I'm trying to verify your bank information. It seems someone is trying to withdraw a large amont of money from your account. Can you give me your account number for verification"

"Are you wearing pants?"
"Excuse me?"
"Are you naked?"
"Huh?"
" I want to know what you look like."
"I'm trying to verify..."
"I want to know if your _____is as hot as you sound."
"Your bank account number"
"I've got my hands on my_____"

Get the picture???

Women hang up real fast. Men actually try to get the account info for a few before they give up. Except a male friend said for him, the men hang up faster than the women.

Believe me, it is a real hoot.

Click to expand...

i had a guy call work a couple of times claiming to represent the company that hosts our website domain name. If i could just please verify some information. Uh, hello, the company that hosts our domain would know that info. I really get annoyed with these people. Especially the ones who call my 90 year old Great Aunt.

This is a phone version of the "Nigerian Scam" where you get an e-mail from some dude with bad English and 30 million bucks he needs to temporarily hide in your bank account. You keep 10%. (HAH!)

I DON'T recommend this, but I did respond to one and gave him a phone number.

It just happened to be that for the FBI's Human Resources section. He wasted a lot of long distance wading through their menu.

Another jape--NOT recommended--was when I sent back a largely incoherent mail witheverythingallruntogether and badly spelled in CAPs in a pale yellow size 72 font. I discussed in a general way about "taking out" all the guy's enemies and that I'd call my uncle Colin Powell to take care of the details. The guy was to dress in bright pink and duck the moment he heard machine gun fire and saw black helicopers landing on his roof.

Never heard back from that one.

Anyway--google "Nigerian Scam" and you'll find a number of entertaining sites where some people pulled worse stuff than I ever thought of. Keep in mind the scammers ARE dangerous, NASTY sociopaths and have been known to kill their victims. I don't do stuff like the above any more. Be safe!

Christine N. said:

Yep, I'm already on the Do Not Call list, as are both my cell phones.

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I didn't think you had to list your cell phones. I thought it was already illegal to call them -- I'm assuming because most of us get charged per call.

Gillhoughly said:

This is a phone version of the "Nigerian Scam" where you get an e-mail from some dude with bad English and 30 million bucks he needs to temporarily hide in your bank account. You keep 10%. (HAH!)

I DON'T recommend this, but I did respond to one and gave him a phone number.

It just happened to be that for the FBI's Human Resources section. He wasted a lot of long distance wading through their menu.

Another jape--NOT recommended--was when I sent back a largely incoherent mail witheverythingallruntogether and badly spelled in CAPs in a pale yellow size 72 font. I discussed in a general way about "taking out" all the guy's enemies and that I'd call my uncle Colin Powell to take care of the details. The guy was to dress in bright pink and duck the moment he heard machine gun fire and saw black helicopers landing on his roof.

Never heard back from that one.

Anyway--google "Nigerian Scam" and you'll find a number of entertaining sites where some people pulled worse stuff than I ever thought of. Keep in mind the scammers ARE dangerous, NASTY sociopaths and have been known to kill their victims. I don't do stuff like the above any more. Be safe!

Click to expand...

Forward 'Nigerian Scam' stuff to Call For Action. I posted that info earlier.

NOTE: the preacher whose wife shot him a month or so ago. THEY got hooked by the Nigerian scam..she wantd out but he felt they needed to keep sending money. So she shot her husband because she says she felt it was the only way to escape. So Gill is calling it right, kinda. There is also a Chinese stock scam. Don't respond to those e-mails...they'll hijack your computer forcing you to unplug the dam thing.

Hmm. Makes sense. I've never gotten an calls like that on my cell. I assumed since they were unpublished... *shrugs*

Jaycinth said:

Forward 'Nigerian Scam' stuff to Call For Action. I posted that info earlier.

NOTE: the preacher whose wife shot him a month or so ago. THEY got hooked by the Nigerian scam..she wanted out but he felt they needed to keep sending money. So she shot her husband because she says she felt it was the only way to escape. So Gill is calling it right, kinda. There is also a Chinese stock scam. Don't respond to those e-mails...they'll hijack your computer forcing you to unplug the dam thing.

Click to expand...

I decided to respond to one of those. He actually wanted me to come out there. I told him I wouldn't come unless he sent me a picture of himself. Whether it was him or not he sent me one. Then I told him I wanted his father's ( he claimed he was the prince of that country) protection and made all sorts of other types of demands. Then I told him I was reporting him and never heard from him again.

Another guy wrote- I said sure what do you need my bank account number? He said Yes! I laughed and told him we Americans are on to their scams and the ones that do help end up on the streets poorer than they were. This guy actually said he was sorry and gave me his name for real and promised to never do it again. I believe he was sincere.

Jaycinth said:

she shot her husband because she says she felt it was the only way to escape.

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Jeez--that sounds like just the sort of screwball thing that should be in a Janet Evanovich mystery. Only in her latest the woman stabbed her spouse in his sit-down because he said she was fat. Menopause was involved.

I'd have likely winged my spouse for either. I was born minus the "puts up with terminal stupidity gene."

Okay--here's one I tried a couple years back that got people to go away until the Do Not Call thing kicked in: In my smoothest, most official supervisor voice I'd answer, "Stargate Operations, General Hammond's office."

My friends would hang on, laughing, the rest would hang up. If they didn't I'd play it to the hilt asking for their phone number and how they got that number and what were they doing on a SECURE line, I'm transfering this call to our security division then "accidentally" disconnect. They'd get the same treatment every time they called back. Sometimes I'd aim the phone at a radio speaker to induce electronic feedback.

Oh--my other fav way to annoy is the Foghorn Leghorn Treatment: pretend to be deaf and YELL. Answer everything at the top of your lungs and talk over them and tell them to speak up you can't HEAR them, even when they start yelling too. "Mistake" one of them for an old friend an go into details about the hernia operation or some other squicky body function.

A little of that goes a looong way.

You may want to look at 419eater.com. This is a group of people who bait such callers as you had, except these are the email cons. I find myself laughing at these because the "proof" the scammers send are normally doctored images of other people.

Read through these and you'll be able to understand what your phonecall was about and how it works.

I had a man charm me online for my bank details once. Unfortunately for him, because I'm housebound/disabled, I don't know my details. If he wanted them, he should have been charming my mother who operates the account on my behalf. Can anyone say, "Wasted time"? lol


PS - Maybe you should email the phone number to the 419eater crew. They may like to play with her. I don't condone targeting people, but I believe in karma. If these people are dishonest enough to rip people off, maybe they deserve to be played with?

Or is that my bad side showing?

This reminds me of the 'golden days' before the Do Not Call list. Living in Florida means being in boiler room central, and it was not unusual for us to get 20 calls a day. We got an answering machine to screen calls, but occassionally one of us would just pick up when we were expecting a call, only to find we had answered a telemarketer.

My husband developed his own little comedy routine. When the person would ask for one of us, he would speak in a heavy accent and tell them that they had reached Moe's House of Pies, and insist they order a pie. While they were trying to run through their sales pitch, he was listing the types of pies and trying to get them to give him a delivery order. It would drive them nuts, because of course their computers were telling them it was a residential number. If the call lasted very long, he would get very demanding. "Order a pie or get off my phone!" Yes, we enjoy being evil people.

LOVE the pie routine--I'll have to try that one.

Reminds me of the other ploy I'd use, answering "Kelly's Pool Hall!" then assume they want to talk to Kelly, who isn't there. I tell them that--while being interrupted by an offstage drunk or turning up the TV or banging a hammer against something until they hang up.

Wonder how it would go to combine the pie shop with being deaf...?

I get a call, I'm gonna be e-vuuuuul!