Help: telephone scam

Subject: telephone scam
From: kendall
Date: 24 Feb 01 - 08:50 AM

Apparently there is a scam going around involving a Bahamian crook. They either e mail you or leave a message on your machine telling you to call one of these area code numbers: 242, 246,264,268,284,345,441,473,664,758,767,784,787,868,869,876 and 809. None of these numbers is located in the US and are not regulated by US law. These people can grab you for as much as 2000 dollars if you respond. See what deregulation does for us MAV?

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: Troll
Date: 24 Feb 01 - 10:32 AM

If they are not regulated by US law, how does deregulation affect them one way or the other? We could be regulated to the teeth and they could STILL operate.

troll

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: kendall
Date: 24 Feb 01 - 11:04 AM

I was comparing our system to theirs. If we had no regulation here, we would be victimized by our own crooks, and, our govt. would do nothing. Business is business.

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: Amos
Date: 24 Feb 01 - 11:46 AM

This scam was circulated several years back, as well. It's not a function of regulation as such but of the volatility of changes in the phone, telecom, and related businesses. It's well covered by laws against fraud.

A

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: Margo
Date: 24 Feb 01 - 05:41 PM

Personally, if someone calls me that I don't know and wants me to call a number that is not toll free, I wouldn't have anything to do with it!

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: Dave Wynn
Date: 24 Feb 01 - 06:29 PM

Talking about deregulation....what would stop Napster from moving their operation to some twitchy country (forgive my non PC here...by twitchy I mean country's that do not have specific regulations....) Columbia , Taiwan etc etc..? Just curious and not wanting a big debate on the ethics of Napster.....This is a what if question....

Spot

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: Justa Picker
Date: 24 Feb 01 - 06:39 PM

There is also a nice fax scam which has been going around for a couple of years, including one I received recently.

They originate in Nigeria and concern some gentleman as Dr. So and So (I guess with a supposed PH.D.) indicating that he needs to get his money out of Nigeria but requires someone with a bank account in the West "to transfer the funds to", and on and on it goes...but something to do with Nigeria's regime locking all their affluent citizens assets and making it impossible for them to leave the country with their money. Bottom line is that the fax requires your signature and your bank account(s) and you're supposed to fax this info back. They also promise a large financial reward to you for the use of them parking their money in your account. Ignore these if you don't want your own bank accounts cleaned out.

Yep and if wishes were horses beggars would ride.

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: Gypsy
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 12:21 AM

Of all the scams available, phone scams make me the maddest. Because they prey on our elderly. My M-I-L was taken for a huge amount of money, because she was raised of a polite generation, who doesn't lie, and therefore, believes that NO ONE lies. I could (and do) rant and rave about this regularly!

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: rangeroger
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 03:17 AM

The Nigerian scam not only uses the fax,it uses the US Mails. The lady that owns the laundromats that I do maintenance for, got one of the letters and showed it to me.The local postal fraud unit got in on that one.

rr

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 03:35 AM

I got the Nigerian letter twice, about 4 years ago (slight variants), and sent it to the local FBI office, with no response. You're right, I should have sent it to the postal inspectors. What was interesting about it was that they described, in rather straightforward terms, a colossal fraud they had supposedly perpetrated on the Nigerian government. I wonder how many high rollers they suckered in.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: R!
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 08:10 AM

AARP has a Telephone Fraud Education program that they developed the increase awareness amongst the older population. The local chapter can hold seminars at senior centers to get the word out. Many small town banks also train their employees to be suspicious of any large savings accout withdrawals a senior citizen makes and intervene if appropriate. Your local phone company can provide tips also. Check the front pages of your phone book.

Ta ra, Reen

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: Justa Picker
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 03:30 PM

You can do a search in any of the big search engines using the keywords frauds or scams and get a number of links notifying you of what's currently out there and what has been circulating.

Here's one and here's another that includes the infamous "Nigerian Letter Scam".

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 04:02 PM

I recently received the Nigerian letter via e-mail.

Subject: Nigerian Money Scam
From: saulgoldie
Date: 24 Jun 02 - 03:00 PM

In case anyone wants some background information or entertainment, this website (below) was created as a response to the "Nigerian Money Scam" that won't die and that most of us have received in one form or another. Not sure if the "blue clicky thing" worked. If not, then copy and paste it into your URL window.

http://www.buddyweiserman.com/

I received the link from the Computer Guys list that is an adjunct to NPR's Public Interest "tech Tuesday" show.

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: Gareth
Date: 24 Jun 02 - 04:33 PM

I seem to be the "Nigerian E-Mail scam" Victim of choice 5 in the last 12 months, and 3 in May.

Our local PC Pld thanked me for the first vopy, and pointed out that they were inundated with complaints.

Gareth

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: Irish sergeant
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 02:06 PM

Gareth; You're not the only one. The perpetrator(s) usually claim to be some government official of the opposition party who has all this money locked up yada, yada, yada ad nauseum. I dlete them I've had at least seven in the last three months myself Neil

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: GUEST,Melani
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 02:19 PM

I just got the Nigerian email myself, a couple of days ago. I just deleted it. Should I have alerted somebody, and if so, who? I have never gotten spam at all before, but I downloaded Real Player to watch a video of "The Frontier House" on the PBS website, and I've been getting pornographic spam ever since!

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: Mrrzy
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 02:26 PM

Also, there are so many new toll-free "area" codes, they may tell you that it IS toll-free, when it isn't - check with 800/555-1212, they can confirm/deny that an area code is toll-free. I got the Nigerian letter too, via email, I just deleted, didn't tell the FBI or the post office or my email server people... should I have?

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: Little Hawk
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 08:46 PM

I get an average of 2 or 3 Nigerian email scams a week, and they're almost all different ones, but essentially the same basic ploy. It must be a major growth industry in Nigeria.

- LH

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 26 Jun 02 - 02:38 AM

I received an e-mail yesterday warning of an English version of the scam at the start of this thread....

You are sitting at home and there is a knock at the door. On answering it you are confronted by a respectable looking woman in a suit, who is slightly distressed. She explains that her car has broken down further down the road and she needs to contact her husband to come to her aid. Is it at all possible to use your phone to call him? You allow her to use the phone, but being the suspicious type you stand with her as she makes the call. She dials the number, and asks to be put through to Mr Smith / Brown / Stevens (Whatever). She holds the line for about thirty seconds. She continues, "In that case can you ask him to leave the meeting for a minute I need to speak to him quite urgently." She apologies again and explains they are getting him out of a meeting. A couple of minutes goes by and she starts to speak to her husband. She explains the situation to him, tells him what has happened to the car, is annoyed because she now can't get to her meeting, and asks what she should do now. She listens for a few seconds and then says, "Well as soon as the meeting finishes can you come to Cardiff Road / Leicester Road / Surrey Street (Whatever), where the car has broken down. Another few seconds go by, "OK, I'll see you in about twenty minutes then." She put the phone down, and thanks you ever so much for your kind assistance, even offering you a pound for your trouble, but of course you decline, it's no trouble. She leaves and everything is fine. Or is it? The day or week before knocking on your door she set up her own premium rate line with a telephone company at the cost of about £150, and she has dictated that calls to that number should be charged at £50 per minute. She has dialled that number. The conversation she has had with her "husband" is entirely fictitious, there is a pre-recorded voice message on the other end to give you the impression she is talking to someone. She has been on the phone for about five minutes, that call just cost you £250, the majority of which goes into her pocket, and the first you know about it is when you get your bill a month later. To rub a bit of salt into the wound, she hasn't even committed a criminal offence. You've given her permission to use your phone. 5 occasions in Luton where this has been reported in the last couple of weeks.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Jun 02 - 03:01 AM

All of these are despicable crooks trying to rip off the victim and it seems a piy that they can't be touched. All possible through advances in communication technology in the private sector! Makes you long for the days when things like the phone service were government run, and so hopelessly inefficient it couldn't do the necessary hook-up. Protection by incompetence - like most public service agencies.

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: Kaleea
Date: 26 Jun 02 - 03:17 AM

I'm with Margo, if someone I don't know calls leaving a message to call back, and the reason for the call is not clear or sounds suspicious, I do not call back. I am notorious for looking up area codes out of curiosity, and sometimes check the phone/cross directory to see if it is listed. Nor do I open emails from those I don't know, and if they put something in the subjet line which I am curious about & think might be legit, I do it on my office 'puter where we have a tech guy out regularly! naughty me. Same for mail, I throw it away if it looks like junk. And if someone comes to my door I look to see who it is first, and if curious enough to open the door, and they ask to use my phone, I offer (through a locked storm door with phone at my ear) to make it for them "after I finish my call with my dear friend which I just got--oh, say in an hour or so," adding "or you might try the deputy sheriff across the street, I know he's home now." Speaking of opening the door to strangers, when I was quite young & inexperienced living in a far away GI town with my hubby who was on post at the time, some "regular Joe" looking character whom I did not know came to my door one morning, asking to use the phone, and I looked at him through the hook & eye locked screen door & told him I did not let strangers in my house, and slammed the door, locking it, and ran to be sure the back door & windows were locked. On the news that night, they told of a man in custody who raped & murdered a young woman in my neighborhood.

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 26 Jun 02 - 11:35 AM

The impounded/imprisonment scam is one of the oldest in the book. It is known as the "Spanish Prisoner" and has gotten money out of people for about a century. You cannot cheat someone who is not looking for an edge or, in this case, a large reward. Greed often gets what it deserves. The phone game is another trip. Never allow anyone to use your phone without doing the dialing yourself. It is not a sure protection but it is all you have. You could also check with Information as suggested. It is nasty to be ripped off for doing the right thing.

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: Gareth
Date: 26 Jun 02 - 02:41 PM

Try this link - to a site run by one of the Univerities. It will give you the codes and location within the UK. Very handy.

But your right, if something sounds to good to be true, it usually isn't true.

Gareth

Subject: RE: Help: telephone scam
From: tremodt
Date: 26 Jun 02 - 09:40 PM

you cant scam an honest man