I just received a phone call . . .

[lowell holmes]

and the caller said he was from Social Security Administration and there was a problem . . .

I hung up and googled "Social Administration Call". As I suspected it was a hoax.

Be Aware!

[Dwayne Watt]

As a result your next call will be from the sheriff department followed closely by the IRS. Of course, there could be a couple of auto warranty offers intermixed. Nothing new to see here.

I NEVER answer the phone from a number I do not recognize (and neither should you). The simple act of saying yes rather than hello could land you in all kinds of bank draining schemes. In fact, just yesterday, I was getting spam calls from France. Legitimate calls will leave a message.

[Jerry Bruette]

As a result your next call will be from the sheriff department followed closely by the IRS. Of course, there could be a couple of auto warranty offers intermixed. Nothing new to see here.

I NEVER answer the phone from a number I do not recognize (and neither should you). The simple act of saying yes rather than hello could land you in all kinds of bank draining schemes. In fact, just yesterday, I was getting spam calls from France. Legitimate calls will leave a message.

Au contraire mon ami. I get a couple of voicemails a day about my vehicle warranty and help with the interest rates on my credit cards. I've even gotten the laughable voicemail threat about my Social Security account being hacked and the threat of a visit from law enforcement if I don't return the call.

You are right about screening calls that you don't recognize.

[lowell holmes]

I am going to keep a police whistle next to the phone and the next crank call will get an earfull.

[Malcolm McLeod]

I am going to keep a police whistle next to the phone and the next crank call will get an earfull.

If you will feel better, blow, brother, blow! But, most calls are computers, you'll have to press the appropriate number "to speak with a rep...'.

I've even pressed the number to connect to the rep - - just so I could set the phone down and burn some of their time, asking them to repeat EVERYTHING. To no avail. The call just disconnects before I even talk to a human. Grrrrrrr.

[Bill Dufour]

I got the socail security fraud and we will call the sheriff robo call last week. Only difference is it was in Spanish.
Bill D.

[Larry Frank]

My favorite is the Microsoft calls. I get a lot saying they represent Medicare...

[Roger Feeley]

I got a call a few days ago from a woman who claimed to be from United healthcare. She said that my Medicare advantage plan comes with a home health consultation and that she wanted to schedule a home visit. My guess is that this was legit but, in my view, they didn’t take sufficient measures to prove that they were on the level. The moment that the woman asked for any personal information, she had crossed a line. Without proving that she was really with my insurance company she was asking me to prove who I was. I told her my concern and that I was terminating the call.

[Peter Kelly]

I am going to keep a police whistle next to the phone and the next crank call will get an earfull.

Learn a few Hindi curse words or insults and catch them off-guard. The reactions are pretty amusing.

[Curt Harms]

Learn a few Hindi curse words or insults and catch them off-guard. The reactions are pretty amusing.

Thanks Peter for my morning chuckle.

[Alan Rutherford]

Unless the caller (computer) is already talking when I pick up the phone I always say ""Hello".

If I don't hear a human response in about one second I hang up. If I hear "This is .... from the .... department" or anything about credit cards, car warranties, Medicare, Social Security, IRS or nearly any specific important-sounding subject, I hang up.

If a human asks for one of us by name or if they say "Is this <a name>" I say "who's calling?". I never say "Yes". Unless it's someone we want to talk to I say "I can't help you." and hang up.

I don't play with them, press keys or leave the phone off the hook. About 9 out of every 10 calls to our house phone are over in 3 seconds or less.

This is a bit abrupt for the genuine calls we get from real people whose number we don't recognize and the occassional legitimate wrong number, but that's life.

We once got a real call from a credit card company that our card was being misused. It was a few years ago and I don't remember the details but the caller ID said something like "Credit card department". If the caller had not immediately said something that clicked, I would have hung up.

[Tom Stenzel]

I got a call a few days ago from a woman who claimed to be from United healthcare. She said that my Medicare advantage plan comes with a home health consultation and that she wanted to schedule a home visit. My guess is that this was legit but, in my view, they didn’t take sufficient measures to prove that they were on the level. The moment that the woman asked for any personal information, she had crossed a line. Without proving that she was really with my insurance company she was asking me to prove who I was. I told her my concern and that I was terminating the call.

I get those calls too. On one of my many visits to the doc I found they are legit. At least in my case.

Of course having a primary care doc, plus a surgeon I see regularly and a proctologist and an urologist plus now working with oncologist #4 I think I see enough damn doctors. My house is a haven away from this and they want to invade it.

NO!

[Dwayne Watt]

Several years ago (back in the dark ages of land lines and answering machines), we would occasionally get "sales" calls from some "security" outfit that would like to stop by and present their product. They would always ask what evenings we would be available for complimentary consultation. Of course the answer was we are always home, we have a security system, and NO you are not welcome to stop by (this last part assumes one answered the phone). What better way to scope out potential burglary locations than to ask if you have a security system and when are you available. Although it is said a security system sign discourages thieves, I have always had the opinion that it also tells the world you think you have something worth stealing.

Back in those same days (pre-robocall times), I had a telemarketer call, I said no or something to that effect and hung up. They called back. I hung up. They called back a 3rd time at which point I very pointedly told them where to go, how to get there, and hung up. The phone rang a 4th time. At that point I unplugged the phone from the wall jack. All of this occurred in the course of 5-10 minutes.

[Matthew Curtis]

When I answer these calls if it is an actual person I try to keep them on the phone as long as I can. Of course without giving them any personal information.

If everyone who received a spam call from an actual person kept the telemarketer occupied for 10 minutes, just imagine how many fewer calls would be going out.

With fewer calls going out that lowers the likelihood of them finding a sucker to give them money, and eventually they would realize that they are losing money and go out of business.

If I have nothing going on it is kind of fun dragging them on for a while.

[Peter Kelly]

The call centres in India that most of these emanate from often have hundreds of employees attempting to scam people 24/7 globally and the individual you're speaking with usually makes less than $200 USD per month. Bulk of the money goes the organised crime networks operating these places.