JFF Newest Scams Out There - What Have They Tried with You?

Ok, am I the only one who realizes that pretending to be the authorities and informing people of 'charges' or 'warrants' is SO ILLEGAL. It's false impersonation of a law enforcement officer. You need to record these or three-way the police department on the call.

"Ill be waiting." Lol.

I always enjoy the grammatically incorrect emails that tell me I've won or will inherit millions from someone in a foreign country.

I got a call from my 'granddaughter' who let me know that she didn't sound like herself because she was sick and had tried everything but ended up in the hospital and they wouldn't treat her unless she gave them money up front. I laughed and laughed, she called me names and then I laughed some more.

Microsoft called me and the man told me to open windows on my computer. I told him I didn't have windows on my computer but I had some on my house.

The medic alert company called to let me know that they had just gotten a call that my dad was taken to the hospital with an urgent medical condition. I asked it he was dead. They assured me that he wasn't. I told them that I was sorry to hear that and felt awful for attending his funeral and visiting his grave for the last 5 yrs. Should I maybe dig him up since he's alive?

One of THE WORST scams I have seen happened two years ago when I went to sublet a college apartment one of my kids had for the spring and summer. I did all the right things through all the right channels to get the apartment rented out for that timeframe. I got a call and an e-mail from a girl who asked about the apartment and wanted to rent it sight unseen. I did have photos of the apartment online but she said she was an exchange student from England. Long story short....she says she wants to sign the sublet lease and her dad wants to pay for the apartment up front by check. I tell them they pay the apartment leasing office, not me directly. They weren't listening to me at all and a FedEx envelope appears at my house with a check for $5500.00! I never gave out my address! Turns out, the check was a fake. Total fraud and then some. I turned it into the police and they told me if I had cashed that check, it would have bounced and also allowed information to pass through the scammers hands via my bank account to clean me out of all I had! I was furious. This probably has happened to a lot of the college kids who try to sublet and are not wise enough to navigate the scammers!

I got a similar call. Agent Scott Anderson (strong Indian accent) told me he was from the IRS and that the National Bureau of Crime Investigation Department has three serious charges on me and if I don't use their help (i.e. send money) I would be responsible for clearing up the charges on my own. I didn't answer, but when they called back my husband answered, they tried to say they were IRS again. However, what they didn't expect was the person with a hispanic sounding last name to speak perfect english. When he called them out on not being IRS, they got flustered and hung up. They did this to his uncle as well and had him extremely scared. Despite coming to this country legally and being a citizen for 20 years, he was scared they would come after him, especially when they told him the police were coming after him. Fortunately, his uncle asked around before sending money.

The old scams are still out there. My SIL's grandmother got a call recently that her grandson was extremely sick and she needed to send money. She was ready to do it, but called my SIL's mom to check on him and then realized it was a scam. Had she not called, she would of sent the money.

I get the Microsoft tech support scam call all the time.
I managed to get one to swear at me once.

Me: You're a total scam. You're wasting your time calling me. You're never going to get what you want from me but you idiots keep calling me back.
Him: Madam are you a b*tch? (It sounds so funny in a heavy Indian accent)
Me: No, but you're a total b*stard.

I almost think he enjoyed that.
I got 3 repeat calls in the next few hours, same scam different voices.

There's no number that shows up on my caller id.
You can hear call center voices in the background.

Depending on my mood I either hang up, string them along (never doing what they ask but wasting their time), or tell them to drop dead.

My favorite one is via email, a notice to appear on court. Yeah, right, like the city just emails people. I mean, that's one of those 'how stupid do you think I am' things.

i haven't had the police one (yet) but the microsoft asshats call me all the time.
er.....i have a mac, geniuses.
but i'm not as immune to it all as i'd like. just last week i ended up switching our power service, THEN looked them up on the 'net (palmco, if anyone's interested) and saw they're a scam company.
geez, my old man was pissed, and he NEVER gets mad at me. part of his job is to find the best providers of services and weed out the scam artists. why i proceeded without running it by him i'll never know.
fortunately i got it sorted out (fingers crossed), but it was humbling. i also roll my eyes at the 'idiots' taken in by these bad scammers, but clearly i've got blind spots.
:( khairete
S.

Been subject to both. My brother got one from DC with hints of an alleged IRS audit.

Best,
F. B.

Lately I have been having people call here and ask for my kids by name. When I ask them what it is about they say "it is regarding their business accounts and it is confidential." My 9 and 12 year olds have business accounts?

I got call about my computer sending the message and needing info. I asked the woman "what's a computer"? She hung up.

I live in your area and I also got a call saying the guy was with the "Microsoft service center." He said there was a problem with their software that they were going to fix. I said, "Microsoft doesn't work like that. You're a scammer." And hung up. At least he didn't threaten to report me to "the authorities"!

I got another call that was a guy with a very rich "radio voice" saying, "We're offering a free service to paint your house number on your curb for safety, so emergency services can find you quickly! This is a FREE, CITY service! Do you already have your numbers on your curb? Your neighbors do! In your neighborhood many homes do already!" I said, actually, no one in our neighborhood has this. He barrelled on saying, "Don't you want the ambulance or fire services to be able to find you quickly? And this is a FREE, CITY sponsored service!"

Well, I really did have to get out the door and started to say, I have to go out the door now, but can you give me your number (so I could check it out and see if the town actually did back this service), when he suddenly went ballistic and screamed, "Then just go out the door!" and slammed down the phone!

I e-mailed our town government right away to let them know about it and they confirmed that it is not a town service -- in fact it's not allowed to paint anything, even house numbers, on curbs in our town as theyr'e town property. I wish I'd thought to do a reverse call to get the number he was using but I was so thrown by his screaming and slamming down the phone -- even Mr. Microsoft didn't do that.

I am certain that this outfit does turn up and does paint the number for free --then tells you, "Oh, we notice that your driveway is cracked, we can fix that tomorrow if you give us a 'down payment' for materials today" and so on. I've heard of lots of scams about driveway paving and roofing along those lines. Beware of free services, folks, and never believe your city or county is providing something unless it says so on their web site!

Love your response to Chad!

I also report these things to the local police because I have found they target senior citizens, who often have little frame of reference for these scams. My mother got one similar to the "error message" call you list, and she went to her computer and did everything the guy said. She was dangerously close to giving him screen-sharing capability. She screwed up and told him he'd have to talk to her daughter who was more computer literate. She took down his name and number (the fool gave it to her), so while I changed all her account info and talked to her investment broker, the local police officer called the guy and had a firm chat with him. It's not going to shut the guy down, but it might stop him from calling more elderly folks in the same town.

There's a new one similar to the arrest warrant one - the caller poses as an IRS agent and says you have to pay back taxes or face imprisonment. Scaring a lot of people for sure.

The charity that makes me crazy is some version of "disabled veterans" who thanks you for your donation last year and then tells you all the wonderful things your money did for these poor guys during the year, and now they hope you can count on them again. Then they want to come to your house to pick up the check and, to reassure you, they say that only Tom or Jim will be coming, not some random guy. Umm….really? Tom and Jim sound pretty random to me. And no, I didn't give to you last year. And all you charities sound the same. Send me a solicitation on your letterhead so I can look you up and not only make sure you are legitimate but also see how much of my money goes into executive salaries and marketing vs. direct services.

I usually get a few from someone connected with a police association. I call the local cops to make sure this is THEIR association raising money for something in MY town. They are happy to advise.

About once a year, I get an email that one of my neighbors is stuck in another country with no money and no cell phone and no suitcases. (But somehow has a computer with all her contacts….)

I checked my spam email today looking for a email that never arrived in my inbox. Apparently I failed to pay my EZ pass fee and if I don't pay immediately I will have to deal with the authorities. I live in a state without EZ pass. Also, a package that I never mailed could not be delivered by the USPS so I was supposed to give information via email to obtain a refund.

We've had the Microsoft one here several times. We just hang up.

When my oldest son was going through his phase of "bad boy", we did get a call from someone who sounded like him, thank God he was standing right there, we might have taken it a bit seriously. Instead we laughed. They got VERY mad. We laughed more and hung up.

Funny that you have an arrest warrant and they won't tell you what it's for! Does this mean you'll be gone for a long time again? I noticed you haven't posted much lately.

My daughter is on a gymnastics team at a local gym. A few days after we signed her up, I received an email supposedly from the gym owner. It said he was trapped in Mexico and is needing money wired to him ASAP in order for him to come home. Turns out it was a bunch of bull. Someone sent it to all the parents connected with the gym.

Wild Woman:
Now with global communication, we, Americans, are being targeted
for scams. Yes, I have almost been scammed.

We don't have security any more from government, federal, state or local.
We need to beware.
D.