I just had a strange phone call and

[lowell holmes]

I used to keep a police whistle next to the phone and when I received prank calls blow it into the phone and hang up.
I think it is time for another whistle.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I kept getting calls from a guy with a local accent claiming he was stuck in Tortola and needed me to go buy him a phone card. I kept hanging up on him. Finally I decided to play with him. The conversation starts out with "Hey, it's me- how you doing man? Long time no see...." which is how he always would start- hoping someone would be embarrassed to say they don't know who it is. He wanted phone cards, so I pretended to be going into the store and buying phone cards. He asked me to scratch off and give him the number on the card- so I made up some numbers. He thanked me and hung up- actually even said give his regards to mom. Haha!!! What a guy, ay? He actually called back later- "Hey man, the numbers no good- can you read them again- " so I once again played him and asked him to verify the numbers I gave him. He read them back, and I said, "No, man- the 8 should be a 9." "Oh, okay, thanks," he said, and hung up. Again he calls me back and I told him, "Dude I've been scamming you all along because you are a worthless scum so I thought I'd waste your time just like you wasted mine- how does it feel?" He cussed me and hung up. The calls stopped after that.

[Kev Williams]

And then there's this nonsense that seems to be gaining popularity:

https://fox13now.com/2018/09/04/layt...dnapping-scam/

[Bill Carey]

Had a new one on social security yesterday. Guy calls my wife and tells her she needs to activate her medicare card, and could she give him the number on her new card. (for you yunguns, they changed all the medicare cards from using your SS number to a random number). So she give him some made up number and he says one of the digits is wrong, could she give him the number on her old card - yep, her SS number. She put him on speaker so I could enjoy it and asked for a number to call him back, and his name, and his extension and his SS number. He stammered a lot and she told him she didn't believe he was with the SS office. And then the clincher: What would your Mother think of you? He told her she was rude and hung up. Unbelievable.

[Doug Garson]

My wife and I have both received hoax calls with a twist! The calls were in Chinese! I ignored them and they went to voicemail. I deleted the voicemails but the calls continued so I got curious. I decided to play back the message and use Google translate. It worked and I was able to hear the message in English. The caller claimed to be from the Chinese embassy and was asking for my help in a sting operation in China to catch crooks who were kidnapping Chinese students in Canada and extorting their parents in China to pay a ransom. A quick Google search found that it was in fact an attempt to extort funds from Chinese parents of students studying in Canada. How they got my cell number and thought I was a Chinese student is puzzling, probably just random.