Let The One Who Answereth The Phone Beware – Don’t Get Scammed

Herb’s Blog, Herbdate 23608 – 1220

(NB: If you’re not reading this on https://thehapswithherb.com/ or on the WordPress Reader from that site, you’re reading an unauthorized copy.)

Dear Fans, Friends, Fiends, Foes, Foundlings, First-Time-Visitors, and Frogs,

Here’s the haps:

First of all, I don’t hate any people but as I get older and more cantankerous I have learned that the older people who distrusted and even despised “Newfangled technology” may have had a point. Although, in the same breath, technology can be useful and even educational. I am not sure if people outside the United States have this problem I am going to discuss but I am guessing they do only tailored to their systems.

Here are a few simple tips to protect yourself. I’m no tech expert by any means or stretch and can’t offer extensive or even close to complete advice but the previous name of this blog before it was The Haps With Herb was Prudentia Sit with the tagline, “Let Common Sense Prevail!” I may not be endowed with a lot of common sense but there are a few things I have picked up on over the years. Let me share a little bit with you.

TANSTAAFL

There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch! If it sounds too good to be true, it is. <Please note the period at the end of that sentence.

Caller ID

The United States Federal Trade Commission requires telemarketers to display their phone number and company name on caller ID. If the number that pops up is very similar to your own with no name on it, you can bet that it’s been hijacked and is a mask for the caller’s real number. They use one that’s similar to yours to subliminally encourage you to answer.

Lag Time

If you answer the phone and there is a lag time before a live person or (increasingly) a robot answers, it’s a scam. Especially if it’s a number that you don’t recognize.

Don’t Say Anything

If you decide to answer one of these calls, never say, “yes” or “okay” because they want to record your voice then call your bank or other institutions and use your recorded voice to get in.

Best Practice = Don’t Answer

If you’re part of my generation (Baby Boomer) or before, you were probably taught polite phone etiquette and have a habit of answering the phone just in case it could be something important. Don’t bother. There is no law that says you must answer the phone. Let it go to voicemail. I notice the loan scammers will often leave a message. We do answer the phone a lot from strange numbers because we are expecting calls from different businesses and things, which makes for frustration.

To Be Fair

Not all of these folks are the scammer themselves and sometimes even believe they are doing a legitimate job. On rare occasions they are, in fact, legitimate callers. Too bad for them. Now, my wife is very polite to them and just says things like, “I’m sorry, but I don’t give that information out over the phone. Please take me off your list. Goodbye.” I’m not so nice. I’m waiting for a phone call and you are interrupting me with something I am not interested in, you get what you deserve. I had a (legitimate) job where you had to “cold-call” out, on a robo-dialer, and it was no fun at all because a lot of people are like me.

On Being Zaphod Beeblebrox

“You mean they want to arrest me over the phone? Could be. I’m a pretty dangerous dude when I’m cornered.” – Zaphod Beeblebrox, President of the Galaxy

I received a call where the person told me they were an officer from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department. They said I owe the IRS over two thousand dollars and they will have me arrested if I don’t take care of it immediately. Over the phone. With them. This was probably one of the clumsiest scams I had heard in a long time and yes, just before the call came to an end I paraphrased and used the above quote telling them to send over two cruisers to come pick me up.

Some scams are very slick. They have called people identifying themselves as bank representatives trying to verify that you have their credit card in your pocket. I know of a couple of cases where the caller was able to provide the full card number and expiration date, to prove that they were really from the bank, but just needed the 3-digit code from the back of the card. Thankfully the person was smart enough to tell the caller they would call back in to the bank’s toll-free number and provide the information.

Never believe anyone who says they are from any government agency or private company that wants you to pay them over the phone immediately. Hang up. If there is any doubt in your mind as to the veracity of the claim remember, you can always call the organization on a number that you know is theirs.

What any of these scammers are looking for is information of any sort. Don’t give them anything to work with. If you acknowledge that they have the correct person then they know your name and phone number. “Is this Mr. Horbort?” “No, I’m sorry, this is Mr. Wayne. John (or Bruce) Wayne.” Usually, I can get rid of them by giving them phone etiquette lessons. “I don’t know how you do business wherever it is that you are from but in this country when you are making a business call to someone it’s considered proper to identify yourself by name, state what company you are with and the nature of the business you are calling about. Then you ask if the person is available to speak to you about this matter.” They usually hang up long before I get very far in my spiel.

Other Best Practice

Hang up. Scammers are criminals and some scams are quite elaborate. Don’t engage them in conversation of any sort. Hang up. TANSTAAFL!