FACE IT.... SCAM VICTIMS JUST AIN'T TOO SMART

nctarheel · ‎07-01-2023

I must get 15 calls a day from scammers.

They all have the same accent. If I am on hold, they all have the same announcement voice and hold music. It doesn't matter if they say they are Amazon, the Border Patrol, the IRS, a Bank (fill in the blank), or the universe of other scams perpetrated on the public.

To me, you have to be less than intelligent to fall for a scam. I just read one on AARP's sign in screen where a grandma sent $90,000 in cash to a scammer that said they were a cop that had been injured by her grandson in a car crash. Come on now, folks. You have to have quite the DIM BULB for a brain to fall for something that is so obviously nefarious.

Here in my state, several years ago, a preacher, of all people, got a call from the "IRS" and they told him he owed money. For hours, they had him go from one 7-11 to the next, buying those Green Dot cards, giving them the PIN numbers and, eventually relieving him of $17,000. It was a clerk at a 7-11 that finally brought this numbskull of a preacher to his senses.

It is my opinion that victims of scams become victims by their own actions. Be it greed, ignorance, or a combination of both, it just blows my mind what people fall for.... and then they want sympathy and compassion. They won't get that from me.

KellytheBelly · ‎07-04-2023

How about...don't answer the call. The end. Problem solved. Are you looking for a solution, or any feedback, whatsoever? Is there some counterattack in line, with something along the lines of, "I don't understand!' 'Was that directed at me?" No worries. My reply is not at all about you. Rest-assured, there will always be scams, there will always be victims, and there will always be scam victims. You cannot control this. It is what it is! And, that's all she wrote. If you had provided a solution for those victims, or any way to prevent it, I'd respect that very much, instead. Much like how someone should use Adblock, yada, yada, yada.

OneDayMatisyahu · ‎07-01-2023

Your reference to AARP's article - '3 Ways to Help a Loved One Who Has Been Scammed

Ease their burden by offering compassion and assisting with financial and emotional recovery'

Click here to read the article------->3 Ways You Can Help a Loved One Who Is Being Scammed (aarp.org) ( you can trust me ) 😉

--------------------- --------------- --------------------

If you're getting 15 calls a day and you engage with them... you already broke the 'first phone scam rule' ---- you picked up and talked with them ( still knowing it's a scam or possible scam) You are now on their list of "open contacts made - share your number - you are on their "suckers list" ---- even if you keep saying ' no way, no buy, etc' or any stalling tricks - they will continue.

First Rule of anti 'Phone Scams' -- don't answer any phone number you don't recognize.

Most folks have Caller ID features on their answering machine or phone.

Once you answer, or keep answering/ engaging - your phone number is spread to others scammers - you are on their 'suckers list,'

Don't answer, don't engage.

🤔

KellytheBelly · ‎07-04-2023

Again, with all of these links and font color changes, I cannot follow your posts, they are too wordy, and confusing. Could you please simplify?

nctarheel · ‎07-01-2023

@OneDayMatisyahu wrote:

First Rule of anti 'Phone Scams' -- don't answer any phone number you don't recognize.
Don't answer, don't engage.

🤔

As I have said previously, I believe that the scam calls, be they identifying as the IRS, Amazon, Border Patrol, Walmart's Fraud Department, etc. all emanate from the same country. The hold message is the same voice, the hold music is exactly the same, and the accents of the "live" individuals are the same. I, in fact, believe that the calls may emanate from the same entity.

It is also my opinion that if I aggravate them, that I have maybe saved an above noted grandma from being scammed.

I have learned several "name calling" "off-color" words in their NATIVE LANGUAGE to call the scammer and when I do so, they either hang up or they make "off-color" comments about me and my family. At least I am taking up their time. You can tell that my "screwing around" with them frustrates them no end.

In fact, the scammers usually start the conversation with asking, "How am I doing?" If I answer a certain way, they hang up immediately so they must have some kind of note on their screen that warns them that I am going to "screw around" with them.

LeeS4949 · ‎07-01-2023

Maybe its just me but having a low life hang up on me is a badge of honor of sorts. I don't typically answer calls that I don't recognize but occasionally,if they catch me in the right mood I do,at which time I launch into my "sales mode" and attempt to sell them my "3 easy steps" phone sales course. I'll just need to bit of personal information from them. That usually does it.

KellytheBelly · ‎07-04-2023

Why bother? Have you ever done phone sales, or any telemarketing? On the receiving end of things, nobody cares. And in this tiny thread, nobody cares! All in all, nobody cares! How is this helping anyone? Just curious. Some seniors have to take these type of jobs to make ends meet. In here, I see no compassion for those that do the job. Shame on any one of you that are above the work done by anyone. You must feel great with your ridicule, and/or games. Perhaps, because I am still the 'working class,' and some of you are retired, you've completely lost touch. Maybe these calls are invigorating, in a way, that you feel 'above' the working class. 😧

nctarheel · ‎07-04-2023

@KellytheBelly wrote:

Why bother?

Have you ever done phone sales, or any telemarketing?

How is this helping anyone?

Some seniors have to take these type of jobs to make ends meet. In here, I see no compassion for those that do the job.

I have done worse than phone sales....I did phone collections. I did phone collections back in the day when you could say anything, threaten anything, and really be a "badass" to steal a word from an AARP promotion. The protections offered today have no more teeth now than back then and that is why scammers still exist in droves. Legit telemarketing, for the most part, doesn't exist so there are few, if any legit "jobs" occupied by seniors in this field.

I bother because I feel if I waste their time, I am keeping them from getting to their next victim as fast as they would have if I didn't waste their time.

LeeS4949 · ‎07-01-2023

Extremely well put. idiocy can be expensive to be sure.

WebWiseWoman · ‎07-01-2023

Wow, nc, just wow!

You were the last person I would have thought I'd read this from...

#StaySafe

#VegasStrong
Phil Harris, actor and showman, to John Fogerty of CCR: “If I’d known I’d live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.”

nctarheel · ‎07-01-2023

@WebWiseWoman wrote:
Wow, nc, just wow!

You were the last person I would have thought I'd read this from...

#StaySafe

I am not sure of what your point is, @WebWiseWoman.

Are you surprised that I "screw around" with scammers or that I have no compassion for victims that should have known better.

WebWiseWoman · ‎07-02-2023

Not the first; I recognize that sport. But to read someone I've held in high esteem shame others hurts...

Many things can cause someone to fall for scams, including health (mental and/or physical); condemation does not help anyone, and for me you were one of the few I felt would not condem others, who through no actual fault of their own, were susceptible...

Lesson learned.

#StaySafe

#VegasStrong
Phil Harris, actor and showman, to John Fogerty of CCR: “If I’d known I’d live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.”

nctarheel · ‎07-03-2023

@WebWiseWoman wrote:

But to read someone I've held in high esteem shame others hurts...

Many things can cause someone to fall for scams, including health (mental and/or physical); condemation does not help anyone, and for me you were one of the few I felt would not condem others, who through no actual fault of their own, were susceptible...

I guess that I am the one in three people surveyed that believes that a scam victim determined their own fate when they should have known better.

There is a huge amount of tools at one's fingertips in order to confirm information. Media, both social and otherwise, is blanketed with information regarding scams, what they are, and how to avoid them. Warnings and alerts appear regularly on television. News programs also educate the public.

With all these resources, I can come to no other conclusion other than people need to be responsible for their own actions.

I am tired of everyone believing they are a victim of one thing or another and use that excuse to explain why they made an ridiculous decision.

My example, the preacher, had to have a CLERK at a SEVEN-ELEVEN tell him he was being scammed after he spent hours buying Green Dot cards and sending money ALL DAY to the scammers that had pretended they were from the IRS. Come on, now.

WebWiseWoman · ‎07-03-2023

well, as two people were killed at 7-Eleven up the street overnight, I'll close my responses. Stay Safe, please.

#VegasStrong
Phil Harris, actor and showman, to John Fogerty of CCR: “If I’d known I’d live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.”

nctarheel · ‎07-03-2023

@WebWiseWoman wrote:

well, as two people were killed at 7-Eleven up the street overnight, I'll close my responses. Stay Safe, please.

I am not sure what my response has to do with two killings at a 7-11. I was merely making a point that a less educated CLERK at a SEVEN-ELEVEN had to make a highly educated MINISTER of a CHURCH realize he was being scammed.