Please add to this list of telephone scams

[Jon Grider]

1. My vehicles warranty is about to expire.
2. My Social Security account has been compromised.
3. My grandson is in a Mexican jail for possession of marijuana.
4.My credit card account has been used in England.

Anyone like to add to this list?

[Jim Koepke]

Don't forget these:
5. Your Amazon account is about to be renewed or has been charged $1,014.34.
6. You have qualified for a free stay at a national hotel chain.
7. You have qualified for a fabulous cruise.
8. You owe the IRS.

There are certainly more to add.

jtk

[glenn bradley]

I do not answer numbers that are blocked or that are not in my contacts list (displays the name I gave them). My voicemail message tells people to leave a voicemail or I will not call back. If someone legitimate needs to reach me, they have plenty of ways besides my cell phone or they can leave a message. Once I know who you are I will add you to my list if I want to talk to you. If your calls come from various sourcing devices, not my problem; run your phone service like a legitimate business :p

Sorry for the near-rant. Feel free to remove this post from the thread ;-)

[Steve Demuth]

If you happen to have what looks like a Chinese name, or work at a place that has lots of students or visa workers:

9. There is a problem with your visa, and you are urgently required to contact the Chinese Consulate to resolve (I get these, in Mandarin, pretty regularly - the call promises to represent you and resolve the difficulty for a substantial fee. There is a second version of this which I am pretty sure is the Chinese government fishing for intelligence recruits on various educational and research campuses)

[Brett Luna]

10. We are Microsoft Customer Support and we have detected your PC are having been infected with virus malware.

[Lee Schierer]

11. Emails purporting to be from Fedex or USPS regarding package deliveries being rescheduled, click on link for more information.
439629

Check the from address closely and it will not be from Fedex or USPS

[John K Jordan]

From the news today: Covid-19 contact tracers

"I'm calling from your local health department to let you know that you have been in contact with someone who has covid-19." Then they ask for payment information "before we can continue."

Legitimate contact tracers don't as for any financial information. They will verify the address and birthdate but never your SS number, immigration, or financial status.

The FTC says contact tracer scammers are using phone, email, and texts. Beware of contact tracing messages with a link they want you to click.

With any doubt ask for their name and phone number and call the health department to verify.

from Kaiser Health News

[Tony Joyce]

Don't forget the free "Medical Alert System"

[Jerome Stanek]

Your Apple account has been compromised

[Lee DeRaud]

Your Apple account has been compromisedAlways love that one, especially since the only Apple product I've ever owned was an Apple II, circa 1982.

[Jim Matthews]

"I'm from the Census bureau. We wanted to ask some questions since you didn't respond..."

I filled out my census survey last April.

[Rob Luter]

For your safety, we have locked your (Financial Institution Name) account. Please verify your credentials to regain access. A convenient link is provided below. So far, my account has been locked at four or five banks or investment companies. Probably a good thing since I don't do business with any of them anyway.

[Roger Feeley]

I lucked out when I moved from Kansas to Virginia. I was too lazy to change my phone number and it has been great. Any call with a Kansas area code and not in my contact list is a scam. Easy.

[Curt Harms]

Always love that one, especially since the only Apple product I've ever owned was an Apple II, circa 1982.

Ranks up there with their finding a Windows virus on a machine that has never had Windows on it, in any form.

[Jerome Stanek]

Always love that one, especially since the only Apple product I've ever owned was an Apple II, circa 1982.

Same with me the the Apple II was a promotion from our bank in 82

[Jon Grider]

Your Apple account has been compromised

Same here. Never had Apple anything.

[Ole Anderson]

I like the Facebook scam where you can get a $350 Echo chainsaw for $19.95. A sucker born every minute.

[Stephen Rosenthal]

Now they’re using texts as well. Got one from Cash*App indicating I have $750 in my account - just click on the link to collect. Never heard of Cash*App and I never click on links I don’t know. I believe it’s a way to get into the info stored in your cell phone.

Also I recently received an email disguised as PayPal saying my account was $335 in arrears with an accompanying link to pay it. Obviously a fake, but very closely resembled PayPal’s logo.

[Anuj Prateek]

Few days back got call saying that some criminal activity has been reported on my SIN (like SSN) and I should press #1 to talk to agent. Voice on phone was automated. I hung up!

Back in US, I got a call that my green card is revoked due to illegal activity. It was some person. Well I don't have or had a GC so knew it was some scam. I told the person to send cops. He hung up.

[Brian Elfert]

I like the Facebook scam where you can get a $350 Echo chainsaw for $19.95. A sucker born every minute.

There are websites popping up all the time with crazy low prices on everything they "sell". They don't actually ship anything and typically require payment of some form that can't be cancelled. They almost never take credit cards because of charge backs. One of the scam websites required you to pay with Sony Playstation card numbers sent to a Gmail address.

[Adam Herman]

we are on our way to turn off your gas/power unless you pay right now. even comes up with the 800 number for the power or gas company.. only thing is, i have never had accounts with those companies.

[Jim Koepke]

Ranks up there with their finding a Windows virus on a machine that has never had Windows on it, in any form.

When those idiots call they get strung along. After asking them if they can clean my window a slow counting starts. When the caller asks about my counting they are asked if they don't need to know how many windows there are in my house for them to clean.

They haven't called in months.

jtk

[Jerome Stanek]

The last few that called I gave the phone to my Grandson that can't talk yet but loves to babble on the phone. The one guy got all pissed off with that as he kept asking stuff and my grandson would just blah blah back

[Bill Dufour]

I got a letter yestersay from PG&E utility company. Three sheets in full color on glossy paper telling me about a special program to improve air conditioning and windows to save on electricity. Funded somehow by payments from there electric bill. Sounds okay but...Only problem is this city of 200,00 has it's own municipal power service provider. No PG@E electric service at all. They do send a gas bill but that is separate. what a waste of money.
Bil lD

[Mike Wilkins]

We want to assist you with your student loan.
Problem is: I graduated college in 1977.
Thanks.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Your cable service is about to be disconnected. Only problem is we don't have cable. Closest service point is half a mile away, across creek. So go ahead and disconnect it. Can't miss what you never had to begin with.

[Stephen Rosenthal]

So in the 3 days since my post, I listed a few items on Craigslist. Today I received 6 emails, 5 from the same individual, all with the exact same wording. “Want to buy, will pay cash, can come today, reply to this email with your text number” - you get the idea. Obviously a scam. The thing is, none of the responses went through Craigslist, so they somehow hacked my email through Craigslist. I will inform Craigslist admin of this, but doubt if there’s much they can do.

Be very careful out there.