Telephone Scam Artist: You Don't Fool Me. - Comments

@ Haylie Jaed
Yep, don't even bother, it doesn't work and is therefore a waste of time.

@ Brian Haner Jr
Oh, are you serious? My mum was gonna put our number on that, but if it doesn't work I guess there's no point. D=

@ Haylie Jaed
That is a really good way to get rid of them! I just wish they'd take no for an answer and then take your number off of their list. The most annoying thing about it is, I've put all our numbers on the "Do Not Call" registry and yet still they call! Bastards.

@ Brian Haner Jr
It's funny. After I posted my tale on Facebook, my best friend's mother popped up saying that when she gets these calls she says, "Sorry, the line's breaking up. Can you call me on my other number?" and then gives them the number for the local police station. They never call her back. =P

You probably could get done for impersonating an officer, but I can't see them calling you out on it when they're breaking the law themselves. ;)

@ Haylie Jaed
Earn their living by stealing bank details and funneling your hard earned cash out of your account, oh yes. Haha. I hang up, if they call back and bitch, I give them what for. Apparently the easiest way to get rid of them is the tell them you're a police officer home from night duty. I don't know if you'd get done for impersonating a police officer, but apparently they shit themselves and stop calling.

@ Brian Haner Jr
Holy crap. =| I've never heard of foundations getting angry like that! That's absolutely crazy! And how dare they call you a selfish brat? Don't people understand that the economy is hard and a lot of people are barely getting by these days? The nerve!

We get that "your computer is compromised" call quite often, too. Just...ugh. Don't these people have anything better to do with their time? Okay, sure - maybe that is how they earn their living. But the ones who get violent about it and just won't let it drop, and the ones that call you ten million freakin' times? I hate them. HATE.

We've been getting this one(anywhere from 4 times a week to twice daily) where they tell us our computer is compromised and we need to follow some steps to ensure we get it "safe" again. It's a scam, I looked it up, but this woman would ring back and abuse us if we hung up on her and ugh, I just hate telemarketers and scamers in general. I think the worst time I got scammed was actually by a legitimate company. I was cornered in the mall by picketers(I hate them!!!) for the Heart Foundation. Anyway, the chick would not let me go until I signed up, so I did under the belief I would be contacted by admin to verify my wanting to sign up. I was counting on that call to say I wanted to cancel, only I never got the call and they just started taking money out of my account. When I called up to cancel, the woman had a go at me and demanded that I sign up again when I was "more financially stable" and I told her, I don't have a job, I'm barely scraping by on my own, and she had the gall to say "That's not my problem." Excuse me? In the end she finally cancelled me and hung up on me after calling me a selfish brat she hoped would need the Foundation one day but wouldn't get the help. I was disgusted by her attitude, her insult and now I tell everyone to give their money to an organization that actually cares, and isn't lying to peoples faces about their struggles for donations.

@ Damsel Of Darkness
I kind of wish I'd told him I wasn't a child, too. And usually, I'm the same with telemarketers - I would sit and listen, because their jobs suck. But it got to the point where we were literally getting at least five calls a night (most of the time different people from the same place) so now I just hang up.

@ manicpixienightmare
I think the scariest part is that they can get so creative, and a lot of people just don't know about the scams. You've probably heard the one about people calling up, saying you have a virus on your computer, and they can fix it for you? My mum fell for that one - until the end of the call where they said she needed ti pay via credit card, and she told them she didn't have one. She told them if they were so desperate for their payment, they could charge it to her phone bill. =P

@ addictedsevenfold.
That's a smart move! XD Unless it's an official place that I myself have called, I will never give out details like that. Call me paranoid, but I always think it means people will come to rob me or murder me in the middle of the night. o.o

That's such a weird thing to try and use as a scam! But then again, I usually think all scams are weird, so I guess that's actually normal.

I love it when people say they need to verify your address or contact number or what-have-you. I'm always all "Sure! Tell me what it is and I'll verify if you're right or wrong." That usually leads to people getting huffy and saying that they can't do that because it's breaking privacy policies or something. I don't care; I do that even when I'm the one calling a place. /shrug.

That's super creepy. Fraud in general terrifies me. I have no idea what is wrong with those types of people.

Yeah, easy to wonder since he made it seem so mysterious. I kind of wish you could've gotten your point across that your not a child, you're an adult and seen how he would've reacted. I imagine he might have stammered and tried to back peddle maybe.

Yeah, I hate telemarketers. I mean, it wouldn't bother me if they would take no for an answer. I find when you say your not interested after hearing what it is they're trying to sell, and I'm always polite (mostly coz I think it would be a shit job and I feel bad for them. Haha) but they try to push it so you say no again, then they become rude which pisses me off. One day one of them is gonna cop and earful for the way they snap at me because I'm not interested in what they're selling. Hahaha.

@ Damsel Of Darkness
Honestly, usually I hang up as soon as I realise the calls are coming from overseas - because nobody from overseas calls our house. But I stayed on the line before for a time, I wondered if it was a legitimate call. Obviously it very quickly became clear it wasn't.

Well, good thing you're not a child. Props to you for having the patience to deal with it. I would've hung up once he started getting aggressive. These scams, really, I believe to be really pathetic and I seriously hope people aren't stupid enough to fall for such a shady and incomplete offer.