PerryD

T-Mobile has been good, the calls are tagged "Suspected Spam". I actually got a call yesterday from a number I didn't recognize and it was tagged "Verified number" instead which I hadn't seen before so I answered and it was a Best Buy delivery driver.

Sonny Corinthos

We get this crap in the mail two or three times a week. And then there are the phone calls.....

Michael Corvin

So is this the 21st century version of the Nigerian Prince email scam?

Josh-da-man

I’m wondering about that myself.

Are they actually offering an car warranty, or this is just some kind of rip-off scam (take the money and run, identity theft)?

PhantomStranger

I believe the car warranty service is actually legitimate. It's a business with no barrier to entry and high profit margins since extended car warranties are almost all profit for the seller. Their strategy is reaching everyone possible so they can hoodwink a few customers into buying them.

Nick Danger

Third party car warranties can be extremely profitable. Some of them are pure scams and never pay out at all. Some are partial scams, they pay some but fight you for every dime. It's gotten so bad that car mechanics tell their customers, "I don't deal with aftermarket warranties. I'll have to give you the itemized receipt and you call them to get reimbursed."

RichC2

Urgent

Brian Shannon

Spam calls from stupid people about cars I no longer own.

Public information is not all they think it is. In any case I doubt they would ever pay, they are scams to sign you up and charge your credit card.

Troy Stiffler

This scam is embarrassing. But it happened to me. And you guys seem like fam. Good to share, because I'm sure it happens to other people.

I once got the "underage sexting" extortion scam. This one was very lucid, and very good. Like I'm not dumb. And it really had me panicked. Guy was American. Names were real. I was Googling details while talking to him on the phone. This was some serious grifting shit. These were not amateurs.

Basically, you talk to a girl on an adult dating site. After sending nudes (that I didn't even ask for), she says she turns 18 next week. This is where I wished her well and ghosted her. I kinda figured it was fake anyways.

Two days later, I get a call from local police department, saying that her mom and dad found her sending me nudes, and that I'm in possession of underage pics. I had a very long, seemingly-legitimate 35 minute call with the "officer". He answered questions very lucidly, as though he was an officer. The number on caller ID was for the local PD. The mom and dad's name are real, and were found on Google. The officer's name is real, and the officer was part of their internet crimes (or maybe sex crimes ... I forget) department. And they know exactly what they're talking about. Eventually, you get in contact with the father, who tries to get you to send money for her counseling for his daughter. I was terrified for about 2 hours, until he asked for money. Then I was like "omg, this is a scam" and was so relieved.

Oh, and when they do the scam, they say that the mom and dad have 48 or 72 hours to press charges. And that I can be put in touch with the parents if I consent. That's why the "dad" starts texting.

So I called the real local PD, and checked to see if the call was legitimate. I told them all the details, sent them snapshots from my phone, and they ended up creating a report, as the scammers are impersonating his real police officers.

wendersfan

These calls were especially amusing to me for the seven years I didn't own a car.

Then I bought a Mini, and now it's in the shop.

D.Pham5GLTE (>60GB)

if only you had bought the extended warranty...

Josh-da-man

That's genuinely frightening. The sophistication of that scam is impressive. It's not just a cold call like the Microsoft or IRS scams; they actually entrap you first so the call you get a few days later seem legit, more so with the number spoofing and identity theft going on.

dsa_shea

A Texas A&M professor threw himself off of a building for a similar extortion like the one you mentioned. I'm glad you figured out it was a scam and no harm came from it. Really wish the other end would receive their comeuppance.

d2cheer

Moral of the story until that take you in cuffs...fuck'em.

mikehunt

I get that and the random person speaking Chinese

Troy Stiffler

Pfff. Not even that. I had nothing to hide. I probably would have counter-sued had it been real.

I called back the PD and asked to speak to the officer I was talking to. First, they told me he wasn't working that day. Then they told me they have no record of my name.

One thing that does suck, is I think I confirmed my name, address, and SSN with them. So that's floating around out there.

I could see how someone would kill themselves over it. Luckily, I didn't feel compelled to really engage with the catfish. Like I'm sure things could have gotten a lot more sexual if I kept texting. I think my last message said "text me at 12:01AM on Wednesday" (I thought it was clever and funny).

Also the "dad" and "officer" followed up a few times with threats (ie "charges are being pressed at 9AM tomorrow") via text. I just laughed.

nickdawgy

I get these too. They always say to be removed from the list press 9. But it’s a recording on my voicemail so....

Troy Stiffler

Yes! This actually works. Who would have thought? I hung up on the calls for months before discovering this.

I noticed that it stops the same recording from multiple numbers too. It's pretty legit to press 9 and get taken off the list.

Alan Smithee

I thought hitting 9 was a trap to verify your number was actually working so they could call you even more.

JTH182

Oh shit! So that must be why I get a lot of "women" wanting to text right way? I never give out my number until I actually meet someone or at least video chat. I try to be super careful about stuff like that.

Josh-da-man

That's how e-mail spam used to work. They'd tell you to reply to the e-mail or click a link to be taken off of the list, but all it did show the assholes sending it that you were reading it.

I would assume that hitting "9" or whatever would just let the scammers know you were listening to them.

Troy Stiffler

It worked for me. For now. The calls stopped after I did it.

clckworang

It is. Scams are very common in the industry my job is in, so I have to do a lot of communications on scams. The recommendations we receive are to hang up and not engage at all (no talking and no hitting digits). They're looking for working lines.

*But* if it's a legitimate service or business, they will honor your request. It's possible to have consented to be contacted on something or did previous business with the company.

Troy Stiffler

I suspect these car warranties are from a legit aftermarket warranty company. I also suspect that one company going at it and calling all of us. Like someone just got financed, and decided to buy some equipment to place all of these calls. Just press 9 and see if they call back again. My calls stopped cold after I did it.

On the subject of scams, I was looking at my credit card statement this morning, and found this interesting one:

FLUXFEE.COM 866-805-7591 AZ
WEBEFEE.COM (866) 436-561GB

Apparently these companies set themselves up as legit small businesses, with no real "service" on their website, and then funnel stolen credit card funds into their merchant accounts. They try to "fly under the radar" with small unnoticeable charges. I found out today that they've been charging my card since June. No idea where the breach occurred. In total, they only got $78 from me over six months. My guess is they basically burn one merchant provider after another (Stripe, PayPal, etc.). All my little chargebacks will only add to a massive negative balance on a closed merchant account somewhere. The company's name points to a skeevy looking home in the UK. I picture some addicts sitting on the floor with laptops, harvesting stolen credit card numbers from who-knows-where. Oddly, that one business (fluxfee.com) points to an office building just down the road from me in Phoenix.

It appears they take it one step further, and wash Google of any mentions of their name. This is pretty sophisticated stuff. Like the "underage sexting" scam I encountered, this one is actually pretty well thought out. These are not stupid Craigslist or Nigerian Prince scams.

Josh-da-man

Seems like a horrible business model for any legit company to utilize, when we're getting all of these blind calls that are scams or identity theft schemes. There's really no way to tell that "We've been trying to reach you regarding your car warranty" is an actual legitimate service, when it's sandwiched between "Rachel for cardholder services" and "Dees eez Meekersoft Teekneekal Soopurt."

I got hit by one of those about fifteen or twenty years ago.

One month, I had a one dollar charge to some kind of "service" with some bland-sounding name that I completely missed. The next month, I had three charges to that one "service" and two others in the amount of about $6 to $10 each. I noticed these immediately, and went back and examined my previous credit card bills, and that's how I found that one dollar charge.

I called up my credit card issuer about the fraudulent charges, and discovered that there had been more charges to my card since I got the last bill in even greater amounts (one was eighty dollars!). My issuer canceled the card immediately and gave me a new number. They also mailed an affidavit to sign, where I stated that I did not authorize the charges, and they refunded me back everything to me.

I think that the scam there is that they charge your card a tiny charge, see if you notice it, then escalate the charges each month until the victim notices it.