What's your way to deal with scam "your social security is suspended, police is coming" or similar calls?

[Wood Worker]

Sometimes all it takes to be removed it to answer, " Thank you for calling Samaritan Health services, if this is an emergency please hang up and dial 911, if you know the extension of the party that you are trying to reach please dial it now, due to covid our menu has changed, then hang up.

 

[Member 5605]

I told him to tell them to come.
I happened to have a shotgun on hand while I was talking to him, racked the slide and said I'm ready to die, send them I. And I'll make sure to take a few of them with me. Started acting very irrational like my fuse was just lit and I snapped.

I then hung up, he called back and I laughed at him and told him to go back to eating curry and a few choice words about his mother, curry, an Indian god and how sweet his sister was last night.

I pulled out the most vile and vicious things I could muster.
Never heard from them again.

 

[Mikej]

Robokiller app is golden for me. U never have to take the call cuz it knows it's a scam and automatically ties them up for a long time with reverse robo messages. Below is the message that my phone plays when they call. It automatically records it so you can listen to it later.

I felt sorry for Kaylee.

 

[Flopsweat]

I told him to tell them to come.
I happened to have a shotgun on hand while I was talking to him, racked the slide and said I'm ready to die, send them I. And I'll make sure to take a few of them with me. Started acting very irrational like my fuse was just lit and I snapped.

I then hung up, he called back and I laughed at him and told him to go back to eating curry and a few choice words about his mother, curry, an Indian god and how sweet his sister was last night.

I pulled out the most vile and vicious things I could muster.
Never heard from them again.

Another one is to answer the phone with their company name. Really throws them.
"Scamcorp."
"What?"
"This is Scamcorp, how may I help you?"
"Uh, no this is Scamcorp calling."
"Quit screwing around and get back to work."

 

[Ferryman]

I told him to tell them to come.
I happened to have a shotgun on hand while I was talking to him, racked the slide and said I'm ready to die, send them I. And I'll make sure to take a few of them with me. Started acting very irrational like my fuse was just lit and I snapped.

I then hung up, he called back and I laughed at him and told him to go back to eating curry and a few choice words about his mother, curry, an Indian god and how sweet his sister was last night.

I pulled out the most vile and vicious things I could muster.
Never heard from them again.

Yeah, that's a good move in the era of red flag laws.... Joking about shooting people and acting unhinged! You might want to rethink your protocols there.

 

[Member 5605]

Yeah, that's a good move in the era of red flag laws.... Joking about shooting people and acting unhinged! You might want to rethink your protocols there.

What you just said gives them (the scammers) power over me. They have no power over me.

That's like a drug dealer calling the police because somebody came and stole their drugs.

 

[revjen45]

Actually they CAN hang up and will as soon as they ascertain that you aren't going to take the bait.

I like to call the number back and *F-bomb* with them, sometimes several times.
When dealing with telemarketers ROE for civilized discourse do not apply. It's OK to say whatever comes to mind. I didn't ask them to disturb the equanimity of my existence with their scam, so I owe them no courtesy.

And the cosmic question of all time: Why are most of them "Thank you for choosing Marriot?" I have never stayed there and now I never will.

 

[The Heretic]

I ignore idiots. That goes for telemarketing, spam, phishers, etc.

As soon as they start in on their message I hang up or delete or whatever. I block them if I can and move on. I get too much of this crap to spend any time on it. gmail does a good job of blocking most of it.

I got a new one about a month ago; email spam demanding something like $3456 because they had a partial on one on my default password strings. Said if I didn't give them the $ they would share all my web surfing websites (or maybe it was just porn - I don't remember) with all my contacts.

Not sure how they got a partial piece my password, but I use variations of that multiple sites, so they could have hacked into one of them. Don't know. Don't care. I ignored it. Maybe I should change my password to something else though.

Half the time I forget which password I am using for something; like today - I updated my MBA last night with the latest version of OSX that I could install on it. It reset the saved password for my wifi and other things, so I had to go thru and try to remember that - I finally figured it out by looking on my Windows laptop. PITA.

 

[Wood Worker]

I suppose that you could just ask them what they are wearing, and if they even respond ask then if it makes them feel pretty.
Edited, I promise to give it a go with the next call about my warranty running out call, or student loan call, and I will post the response.

 

[RoseCityWreckr]

I kept one on the line for about 45 minutes while I "went to the store to buy a GreenDot prepaid card" to pay the "fine". He told me to scratch the back and read the numbers. I told him it was letters so he had me hold while he got a "supervisor". I asked the supervisor to write it down so I didn't have to keep repeating it. It says, G,O,F,U,C,K,Y,O,U,R,S,E,L,F. "Supervisor" says, Okay thanks. Wait are you serious? I said ya, go bubblegum yourself and hung up. They quit calling. If you can waste their time they stop. It's a numbers game for them. The more calls they can make the more people they'll find to fall for it.

 

[Flopsweat]

I kept one on the line for about 45 minutes while I "went to the store to buy a GreenDot prepaid card" to pay the "fine". He told me to scratch the back and read the numbers. I told him it was letters so he had me hold while he got a "supervisor". I asked the supervisor to write it down so I didn't have to keep repeating it. It says, G,O,F,U,C,K,Y,O,U,R,S,E,L,F. "Supervisor" says, Okay thanks. Wait are you serious? I said ya, go bubblegum yourself and hung up. They quit calling. If you can waste their time they stop. It's a numbers game for them. The more calls they can make the more people they'll find to fall for it.

You might like this scambaiting site. https://aff.419eater.com/

 

[Mikej]

You might like this scambaiting site. https://aff.419eater.com/

Bless those ^^ folks that go to all that trouble!

I don't have what it takes to do that. Sometimes I can have as many as ten calls in a day. Sometimes none. I don't answer, so most times there's no message. One time, I'd had a couple beers and was feeling froggy and I worked one of these folks calling, maybe, about my "Windows Computer"? I got to asking, or sympathizing, with "Steve" ( clearly not his real name), about what kind of a miserable existence a person has to be in to stoop to this line of work. It was actually a good conversation. He quit with the scam and just talked to me. He admitted eventually that yes, his life was pretty crappy and he wasn't proud of the work he was doing.

 

[Tony617]

I just ignore those calls. I have 3 calls saying the IRS is going to garnish your paycheck. Even had one call that LE has been notified and warrant for your arrest has been issued.

 

[Nosferatu]

There's a lot of high blood pressure in this thread.

Number blocked, beer cracked, done and done.

 

[nehalemguy]

I ask them if they know Jesus.

-E-

 

[Flopsweat]

Bless those ^^ folks that go to all that trouble!

I don't have what it takes to do that. Sometimes I can have as many as ten calls in a day. Sometimes none. I don't answer, so most times there's no message. One time, I'd had a couple beers and was feeling froggy and I worked one of these folks calling, maybe, about my "Windows Computer"? I got to asking, or sympathizing, with "Steve" ( clearly not his real name), about what kind of a miserable existence a person has to be in to stoop to this line of work. It was actually a good conversation. He quit with the scam and just talked to me. He admitted eventually that yes, his life was pretty crappy and he wasn't proud of the work he was doing.

The scambaiters have fake email accounts and burner phones so the scammers won't know who they are. Stuff you and I would do they probably wouldn't get too worked up over, but strand someone outside their country with no passport and no money, well they might start thinking about revenge.

 

[eb in oregon]

I used to push "1" to talk with a "representative" and cuss them out, call them thieves and crooks, and tell them their mothers were prostitutes. All that did was get me more phone calls. These days I'll either let it go to voice mail or simply answer, wait 5 seconds for a recorded pitch or more silence, and just hang up. Very rarely do I get a real human being, and when I do I just say "I'm on the "do not call" list and you just calling me is a crime. I'll be forwarding your number to the FBI as a scam" and then hang up.

As for those "Marriott" calls I actually contacted their customer service department and chewed them out. The employee told me that Marriott isn't connected to those people, they don't do phone deals, and that I should report the number as a scam. Which stands to reason as it is illegal for any business to call you unless they were invited. I even scream at the poor people asking me about a new roof or gutters though realistically they are just trying to pay their bills too.

 

[1371JarHead]

Usually I ignore them, but occasionally I answer by mistake, maybe expecting a call from an unknown number. These responses usually silence them.
The police (IRS, whoever) are coming?? "Send them around, I'll be waiting!!"
How is your day?? "Terrible. The house burned down and we lost two kids and the dog."
The ever popular ordering pizza from them.

hahahahah i do that as well, I always ask for 2 all meat with extra chovies lololol

 

[ejmpnu92]

If its a recording, I listen to the pitch and then report it as a spam/fraud number to my provider.
If its a real person... I listen to the up to the point they say, an agent is on the way... I say ok, I will wait... which usually results in disbelief and an argument ... I interrupt periodically to say, still waiting for the agent.... then, when I get bored, I inform them I am going to hang up and that when the agent shows, they should have a search warrant....
Sometimes, I get a burr under my saddle and play along... it can be fun to waste their time, as they are wasting mine....

 

[Mikej]

I got suckered into one a couple days ago. Our caller ID will only read "Cell Phone Caller". There ARE folks we know that call us on cell phones. If we don't recognize the # we'll wait for them to start leaving a message. Usually. I answered one of those. It was that pesky$299.00 Amazon order again that I hadn't ordered, but if I HAD, I should ignore their "Saving Me" call. I pushed *2* to be transferred. When "Michael" (With the heavy accent) answered and I said "How about you KMA?" And said it a couple more times. The bastid laughed at me. I shoulda' known better. I'll just read your guys stories from now on to get my jollies.