So I am not so much bitching as wondering if anyone has even heard of this scam.

A year or so ago I was at my parents and their land line rang. I answered it and the clearly Indian scammer on the other end says he is "Zack your grandson". Well my mother , who was alive at the time, did/does have a grandson by that name.

I hung up on the scammer and asked my parents about it and they said that they have received multiple phone calls like that asking for money to get the grandson out of various binds. Fortunately they never fell for it.

Fast forward to last week when I was at my dad's and I received the same phone call and I swear it was the same guy!

It is super creepy and makes we wonder how the scammer has their landline and knows his name? Also what the heck with the follow up? Still calling a year later?

That’s not an uncommon one. I do admire their persistence though.

The amount of information available on the internet about a person is nearly unbelievable. A motivated group with resources can find out a lot more than would even occur to a normal person to look for.

My mom was telling me this morning about a call she received from someone claiming to be her ‘oldest grandson’. He claimed that he was in jail and needed money to get out. My mom knew it was a scam and hung up.

The odd thing is they knew what name to call her. I.e. not grandma.

Pick any name or phone number, enter it in truepeoplesearch.com and it usually lists a lot of relationship names. It'd be labor intensive, but you can easily find out about most people with a few keystrokes.

I got one of these calls while driving (my grandmother used my cell# as a point of contact for a generator repair, guessing they had their info hacked).

I played along, pretending I was my grandfather (deceased) and string the scammer out for over 35 minutes by pretending i was going to the store to get the prepaid card they wanted.

The scammer finally caught on that I was bluffing and screwing with him, had some choice words for me and my mother, and hung up.

Haven't gotten a live scammer since.

quote:

Originally posted by Underdog:
It is super creepy and makes we wonder how the scammer has their landline and knows his name?

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Lee:
Pick any name or phone number, enter it in truepeoplesearch.com and it usually lists a lot of relationship names. It'd be labor intensive, but you can easily find out about most people with a few keystrokes.

Yep. It's a common scan targeting older folks, perpetuated using online searchable public records through sites like the above and others, often supplemented by info scoured from publicly posted social media posts.

That scam has been around since the days of the 419 douchebags

not had that one yet, or heard of it,

did however get 9 calls from Olivia at Apple Cloud Support yesterday, and one today, saying my cloud has issues,

and I run android,,


wife has an iphone, but no issues at all

I have received numerous calls (often from different numbers) saying my social security number has been compromised, that I will face legal consequences, call this number, and this is my last warning.

My.Last.Warning.

My google business listing has been expiring for 5 years, and I'm in dire straights as to how customers will find me....

My "I'm the smartest man in the room" uncle fell for that scam a few years ago. If anyone else in the family had fallen for it he would have gone on forever about how stupid they were.

quote:

Originally posted by 229DAK:
I have received numerous calls (often from different numbers) saying my social security number has been compromised, that I will face legal consequences, call this number, and this is my last warning.

My.Last.Warning.

Dang - thought I was the only one whose SSN was compromized. As far as stringing the idiots on, we don't answer either the landline or cells. If it's that important LEAVE A MESSAGE like the phone TELLS you to do.

My phone has been ringing like crazy out of the blue since late last week with the compromised social security number thing. Like 6 times a day

Send me 50% of what they said and, I'll get your son/ grandson home alive.

For an additional 10%, it'll be before tomorrow morning.*

*This additional offer is refundable and non binding nor promise of actual delivery. The offer is solely at the payer's discretion and owners of this media are held harmless. Any funds already paid are nonrefundable because - you're dumb. 15% is required now (which is also nonrefundable because - you're really, really dumb) . Or. Else.

Sounds like the old "Spanish Prisoner" scam. Been around literally since medieval times.

We got a new one yesterday afternoon. The call said there was suspicious activity on our ICloud account. We both bought and set up new phones Monday so we were wondering if it could really be legit. When she asked for the dates of the suspicious activities there was a long silence and then "Habib" hung up. I hope I get to answer next time we get that call.

It's always a good chance to use your, "I have a particular set of skills" soliloquy.

One we got twice while out of town and left on our answering machine was they were from Amazon and needed to know if the item we were sending to someplace in Alabama for something like $936 was authorized.....