I Will Never Ever Do That Again

Missed call on my iPhone. Silly me replied then realised straightaway, maybe I shouldn't have done that so ended the call before any damage could be done. NUH! How wrong could I be.
Got my phone account with an $88 34 minute call to Mauritania. I was horrified but more so that I could be so stupid.
Quick (I say that lightly as they are never quick)) phone call to our server and we have had the $88 reversed.
There are some rotten low life's out there. Mauritania, its over on the other side of Africa. Stop scamming little old pensioners.
How many others have fallen for this? We must be keeping him in constant contact with his very much missed family. Write a letter you snake.
Rant over

 

I must admit I now ask Mr Google whose number it was before returning missed calls. Then there are some who just ring for the heck of it-perhaps to record voices & particular words.

 

Ooh. Glad you were able to get the money reversed.

I never answer an unrecognised caller or return the call on my phone, going by the theory that 'if it's important they'll ring again'. Of course, one day I will miss an important call/appointment because of these wretched people.

My mother gets very worked up about it all. She copes with most things living alone in her nineties very well, but if she gets one of these calls she thinks it is a family member in trouble and she must call back. I've tried explaining the word 'scam' to her but it doesn't sink in.

 

I've gotten to where I turn the ringer off. If it's important, they will leave a message.

 

Curious Sue.........did you actually connect with them or did you get charged even though you hung up before they picked up?? We haven't been hit with those over here yet. But the latest one is "there is a charge of $600 (pick a number) on your credit care....hit #1 to confirm". We are getting a slew of those here this week. I hang up on any unknown person and often don't answer if I don't recognize the number.

PS....they are taped calls and they never say what credit card. Another one is asking people to confirm their account number on a credit card and they start off with the first 4 numbers (there are usually only 2 different ones for those) and little old ladies fall for this........not us, though, eh??

 

I don’t believe it even connected, Heather. I was really quick to realise.
I don’t normally do that anyway so heaven only knows what I was thinking.
It’s a rather sad world when you have to be looking over your shoulder all the time. I worry for our grandchildren.

 

I've not heard of this one before Sue and it doesn't remind me of another scam just with a different script i.e. a variation. It is certainly alarming that somehow answering a call can connect the scummy caller to a premium number which is paid for by you. Wonder how that can be?

When we've debated scams before I've said that in our house if we don't recognise a number on a landline or mobile we don't pick up. Then the real world got in the way....our GP's phone doesn't give out a number, neither does our local hospital so how can we deal with appointments or test results etc and other slightly important things? And they don't always leave a message.

I had concluded that sometimes you have to pick up and ring off or be prepared to tell the scammer to go where the sun doesn't shine. Now that tactic has been blown too. Maybe I'll train the vacuum to answer such calls. It could give them a dusty answer.

 

Same here Tony. With hubby and his health issues we have the same problem.
I had a local missed call for the dental clinic, when I returned the call they asked me how I got the number. Simple, it came up on the screen.

 

My thoughts too, Tony. Here, both hospital and GP numbers come up as ‘withheld’, so you can’t risk not answering a ‘withheld’ number.

And you could be on to a winner if you could train the vacuum to deal with scam calls.......

 

"And you could be on to a winner if you could train the vacuum to deal with scam calls......."

Knowing my evil vacuum it would probably end up sucking up to the scammers

 

Me too, people who need to contact me use my mobile number. So far, six months on, only two messages, neither of which were genuine.

 

Luckily my GP surgery prefer to make contact on my mobile phone so there are no witheld number callers to my landline worth bothering with. My rule is inflexible, no genuine message, go chase yourself.

 

Weirdly enough, as I scrolled through the above posts, my mobile starting buzzing with an incoming call. I let it end, as I didn't recognise it. Now I am left wondering whether I should've answered in case this was the one time it was urgent.

 

I often write down the number and check it on one of those 'who called me?' sites, there are a few of them. Usually a scam.....

 

Usually when I check the # it says it can't find it or because of spoofing it comes up as a legitimate # but not someone I know so I leave it as well. If it is important they will leave a message.

 

If I get a missed call from a number I don't recognise I definitely ignore them, if it's someone genuine they would have left a message identifying themselves or call again. My doctor and other medical people leave a text message as a reminder of an appointment.

Yesterday I had a business card from a local Real Estate agent with the words written on it "please call". fat chance of that.

 

This certainly works. A text message with a reply number from an unknown caller arrived a few minutes ago. The text contained sufficient information to make it clear the message is genuine; it was sent from the hospital my GP referred me to a few days ago.

 

I too tend to ignore numbers I don't recognise. They never leave a message.

 

Very true.

Btw I noticed the other day on Change.org that someone has started a petition to ban the Indian calls to Australia, not sure if it's possible but I signed it with a click anyway.