Scammers

[ssullivan]

Scammers can be fun and very entertaining. I enjoy watching them struggle to complete the transaction when I give them phony info.

Grifters on the other hand... a bit more difficult.

Drifting the thread a little, here is a secret I have used on people trying to sell me something for many years. I reasoned it out having been in sales for a bit:

If someone is trying to sell you something you definitely don't want, and you want to shut them up or end the call without getting upset, just tell a little white lie. Say you already have whatever it is they are selling. They have nothing left to talk about and then *they*want to get off the phone.

Works like a charm for any and every telemarketer.

[Alan Wheeler]

I don't tell a white lie even, I just simply and clearly say, Sorry, I am not interested and hang up.

[hellosailor]

The job placement ones are known to be fishing for information to be used in identity theft scams.

The only thing you can do, to help keep these people from attacking your firends and family along with the rest of the world, is play them out as long as you can. Waste their time and if you can, their money. So while you're having fun, they don't have the resources to attack anyone else.

"Great offer, but I'm going on vacation in two days! Can you send the check by overnight courier? Fedex or Post?" and then swear it never got to you, or arrived empty, and with the wrong name on it, so they have to send it again. By express, of course, again.

[GordMay]

Premise: Telemarketers take the brute force approach to making sales. If you talk to a whole bunch of people, someone will buy what you are selling.

Counter-Tactic: Waste as much of their time as you can. For each minute that you waste, several potential customers that will not be reached. Make Telemarketing unprofitable. Hanging up only increases the changes for them to make a sale. Don't let this happen!

Some Specific Strategies to have fun with telemarketers:

1. When a telemarketer asks how you're doing, give him the answer! Tell him you’re glad he asked, because your gastritis has really been giving you a lot of gas. Make sure to tell him how your kids never call, and how your spouse and you have been arguing lately. Your arthritis, loose fillings, back pain, ingrown nails, anything! As long as it is way more than he wanted to know!

2. If you recognize a telemarketer before you have spoken, pretend you are an answering machine with a message along these lines. ``Thank you for calling CMTCC, Citizens for Making Telemarketing a Capital Crime. We now have the support of about 25% of the legislature. Soon we will be able to execute those worthless, money grubbing dregs, making the earth a better place to live. Please send your tax deductible contribution to...''

3.Listen to their their entire sales pitch (script), then tell them how interested you are. But first, you want to talk to them about ... Then launch into a pitch for them to contribute to some charity that sounds quasi-legit, but is really just for your personal benefit. If they do not contribute, then hang up in righteous indignation that they are such uncaring human beings. In the unlikely event that they will contribute, give then a address to send the contribution to, thank them, and hang up before they have a chance to change the subject back to what they called you about.

[Benny]

Good tactics Gord - and maybe a way to increase the cruising kitty

[sv_makai]

We don't ever answer the home phone, the ringer is turned off. We always let vmail pickup and record our calls. The recorded answer is:

"Hello, if this is a sales or telemarket call, please hangup and never call here again. If you are a friend please press 1 and leave a message".

I hate wasting time with the telemarketers, we are in a targeted zipcode and we used to be bombarded with sales calls. Make sure you are on the 'do not call list', it helps reduce the sales calls. Though you still get some.

Using the a prompt like pushing 1 instead defaulting to automatically recording after a period time elimniates most sales calls and all recorded calls is someone actually has to push 1, otherwise after a short period of time our vmail hangs up.

Anybody we want to talk to has our cell line to call.

[Wahoo Sails]

One of my favorites is to listen to the whole sales pitch, then say ... "Oh, there's someone at the door ... can you hold on a minute?" then set the reciever down and ignore it! The laws have changed & telemarketers may now call cell phones ... thankfully there is a "do not call" list for cell phones as well. Ya know what I would like? I would like the name of the person that wrote the change in the law ... and everyone that voted for it!!! The "do not call list" has been the most popular piece of legislation EVER in this country. Working on that basis, they wrote the "do not fax list" .... then some sneaky SOB changed the wording so that it will not go into effect for 5 years .... I want his (or her) name as well!!! These people should never be elected again!
Bob

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by sv_makai

We don't ever answer the home phone, the ringer is turned off. We always let vmail pickup and record our calls.

Ditto!!!!!!!!!!!

[charley]

I have one better, I use a VOIP phone at home that has the coolest user interface. In my caller ID settings I can "blacklist" certain numbers. All calls that come in as unknown or anonymous the get a computer voice that says " Your call is not welcome here hang up and do not call back, this number has been blacklisted" !
I love it, I actually had to put on a freinds ex husbands number on my blacklist as he used to call and leave dumb ass messages on my VM.

[hellosailor]

Wahoo-
" The laws have changed & telemarketers may now call cell phones ... thankfully there is a "do not call" list for cell phones as well."
Not in the US of A, according to the FTC, who adminster the national Do Not Call list. In fact, they ask our help in QUASHING THIS BASELESS INTERNET RUMOUR THAT PEOPLE KEEP SPREADING.

Florida seems to have no interest in stopping telemarketing, but people move there because the weather is nice, not because the state is known for progressive politics.

[Boracay]

My approach to telemarkers is to :-
be polite
treat them as a human being
clearly determine that they are telemarketers (My dentist sounds like one)
make sure they get no personal information (I don't confirm my name)
try to get their company name and then to remind them that I am on a "do not call list" and that I should not be called again
hang up as quickly as possible.

No point in getting upset.

[KIWI]

Goggle promotions, Is the biggest scam going around NZ at moment, But I reconsider it straight away,
I played with it,
The email said I had won 17 Mil on a goggle promotion and my name was drawn out at random via computer from all gmail addresses, They even gave the genuine goggle address in London. I emailed goggle head office and enclosed a copy of the email I received, They reply ed they were getting 10-20 people a week complaining a week that they have not been paid and did not realized that it was a scam.
Graham

[hellosailor]

<treat them as a human being>

See now, that's your first mistake. (Presuming you've never made any mistakes up to this point in your life.<G>) Even if they are just a virgin who made the mistake of answering a classified add for a boiler room, the sooner they find out what they are working for, the faster they'll get out of it.

Most of the telemarketers know very well that they are liars and scoundrels, you will be correct more often than not by treating them accordingly.

Me, I just tell them I'm not here but "oh yeah, he told me he's anxiously trying to get in touch with you, could you please call him at his hotel?" and I actually DO have the phone number for the BeiJing Hilton handy.<G>

I wonder, do they have telephones in Katmandu or Nepal yet? Could there be a longer distance I could have them call?<WEG>

[delmarrey]

BROADCAST: VA Tech tragedy being exploited by some fraud schemes


We are seeing signs of phishing or fraud schemes that take advantage of the tragedy at Virginia Tech. You may receive email requests for victim assistance or emails that seem to come from a Virginia Tech address and promise video or other news. Also, domain names for websites have been snatched up, so expect to see many new websites, at least some of which will be scams to steal your money or your identity. If you receive any email messages that seem to come from or refer to Virginia Tech, delete them immediately. Please go through legitimate organizations to provide help.

[GMac]

I get average 40-50 scam type emails a day, 100's about the size of my penis, it's a very old mail address. I got a clever little filter thing called mailwasher. Mailwasher gets the info from the server and shows me enought to decide if it's wanted or not. The ones you don't want you can bounce back and they show back at the other end as 'invalid email address' and there is no trace of it being downloaded off the server. This is good but there is a catch.

Most email address's they send you crap on are someone else's, spoofing I think they call it. Sadly many get bounced to pepole who own the address but did not actually send the email. I even get crap from my own email address and domain name now.


On the real repeat offenders who use yahoo, gmail and so on address's I've configured my machine to forward all the crap mail to every yahoo / whatever address's I can find. I think the people at gmail don't like me due to this, over a 2 week period 9 of there address's got many many junk emails. They accused me of spamming them and were not impressed with my "take me to court and we'll see who the dodgiest then" attitude.
They got very excited or at least their legal department did especially when after a couple of very rude emails from them only resulted in the following anwser.

Dear Sirs,

I did receive your email thank you. I have decided just ignore you just as you do the spammers who use your service. May I suggest you cool down a bit by having a long cool glass of f**k right off.

Have a fantastic day,
Me

Appearently I'm being taken to court and may result in jail time. A US court and I'm in NZ. Should be a good watch Are orange overalls compulsary or do we get colour options?