16 Ways You Can be Phone Scammed

I got one of those phone calls years ago where they told me my number was all over there caller ID and I had no idea who they were. They asked for my address and some other personal info. I hung and and changed my cell phone number pronto.

Be Aware of companies that are using legitimate names of businesses as well as couriers such as Fedex to send large amounts of money via cheque overnight. When the cheque is verified by your local bank it will bounce. If deposited to a account with money in it, it might clear for simple convience and you could be on the hook for the money after the fact.
This was a new one to me, I thought it was a joke of sorts until the fedex showed up. it makes it look like a legitimate operation. I decided to drop the cheque into a new bank account for the hell of it to check it out, as it turns out. I was correct, it bounced. The really odd thing here also which i found out after the fact, was that the package was delievered at Fedex own expense by a internal pay code, they were suprised as well. Also the package indicated being shipped from the legitimate business address, however in fact was a dropoff to the depot. some of this [***] is pretty slick. like honestly, who comes up with this stuff. funny thing is that they all have foreign accients or are from another country. Like really, i have no reason not to like people from other places but after this incident, kinda makes you wonder what these people are doing here in canada in the first place.

Thanks for this site - I love it when I put in a number and see others have gotten the same thing and oftentimes who is calling so I know not to answer.  Helps determine legitimate numbers too (Macy's called about a billing error and I called back via the number on my statement and resolved it.)

I guess I don't understand the point of an international area code scam. How does it benefit the scammer? It seems to me that the victim's phone company would be the only one to gain from this one.

Not that I have been victim to one of these, and I'd probably know better than to fall for it; it's just that I've heard of this scam before but am not sure what's in it for the people running it.

My son has sent money to a company called US Housing Aid Consultants out of Florida with the number 1-800-685-6284  I think it is a scam but he is not listening to me.  Do any of you know about this company?

the scammer sets international calling rates and passes them as charges to the victim's phone company. e.g. $49/minute for 5 minutes.

The phone company is just doing the billing.

Good 4 You..Smart Lady  Thanks 4 the comment

Nobody can be arrested these days for NON Payment on anything..Unless there are Forms, procedures, Court Dates etc...We have nothing to ever worry about...For the most part anyway..NO FEAR

OK. That makes sense. Thanks for explaining that.

I also had a strange charge appear on my on-line bank statement. I check my statement every day so I was able to catch it before it got too far. It was for $25.00 even. But apparently the people who made this charge were trying to get in again, because when I tried to check my bank account, I was told that a block had been put on the account for security reasons. So somebody was trying to get into my account to try and get more money, but probably couldn't get the right pin number.

I received a call from a woman claiming I needed to extend the warranty on my vehicle, when I asked her " what was the make of the vehicle she was referring to" she was unable to tell me, so I hung up on her. And have not heard from her since.

A couple of decades ago I was a telemarketer for a company in Texas. I got to be so good at it that I was sent to Dallas to learn from their "best man". This guy was the best con man I have ever had the displeasure of meeting. He could size up a mark by the time they said hello over the phone & become the perfect persona to pluck them. I heard him go from a very rowdy,cussing football coach on 1 call to a Southern Texas Minister in another call in less than 2 seconds flat. I was reminded of him when a contact told me of 1 of the latest phone scams he's stumbled into. The mark gets a call from a close frend or relative asking to be wired money to some unlikely place. The scam works like this, a skilled mimic calls & talks to some poor joe, usually a collage student or company "Road Warrior" picked from some directory listing & are interviwed by the mimic with inouclous ?s for a few minutes. The questions don't matter as they are actually picking up your speech patterns & voice. They then call the joe's parents, grandparents or boss saying that they have gotten into some sort of trouble & need to have money sent to them right away. The person on the other end of the line reconizes their voice & send whatever they "need" right away without a second thought. I've already heard of a couple of these cases, 1 with a company & the other with some grandparents of an out of state collage student. One I heard about on a PBS callin show from a choir director from a church who was called in to explain how he called several members for money to fix his car which had been sent to him. The guy didn't even own a car & worked closely with many of the good church folks who sent money. He believed he was later let loose from his position because some of the people never really believed it had not been him on the phone. Beleive me, after working with that guy from Dallas I know that there are those out there that are really that good!

When a caller asked to speak with the oldest male shopper in our household - I asked if I could help him.  The guy got rather rude and said something like, "Are you the oldest MALE in your home?"  Since I am not - I put the "oldest male" on the phone.  I told him the phone was for him and that the man on the phone had some shopping questions for him. My son got on the phone and said, "I'll talk to you, but if we have to talk about shopping for shoes, I am hanging up because I have to do that all the time with my mom." I was listening next to my son's ear to make sure nothing inappropriate was said to him, and I started laughing, so I didn't hear the question, but since the answer was 6... My son hung up and said the man was just calling to ask how old he was - easy answer!!

Excellent tips in these comments.  Either I missed this one, or it is new.
"Scam the Scammed and the Scared of Being Scammed"  Our community is being hit with a considerable number of identity thefts involving credit card use.
Now, an automated call is asking folks that fear that their credit card is being misused to punch in their name SS# and DOB so their bank can take the proper precautions.