scammers

[dawn]

Received a call from 301-301-3032 and a gentleman with a very strong accent and very broken English wanted to talk to me about my past due gas account. I asked what account he was talking about, he said Washington Gas, I said oh ok what about it, he said we are past due oh, ok, how far behind are we? 45 days he said. OK well funny, we dont have gas, he said yes Washington Gas, ha ha, no we are all electric and he hung up on me.

So people please beware......

 

[frequentflier]

Received a call from 301-301-3032 and a gentleman with a very strong accent and very broken English wanted to talk to me about my past due gas account. I asked what account he was talking about, he said Washington Gas, I said oh ok what about it, he said we are past due oh, ok, how far behind are we? 45 days he said. OK well funny, we dont have gas, he said yes Washington Gas, ha ha, no we are all electric and he hung up on me.

So people please beware......

One of my employees got a call today about her son needing $ to get out of jail in TX. Her son is currently on travel. But is not in jail. They were pressuring her to give a cc # for bail...

Beware!

 

[kalmd]

My co-worker's mother received a call from her a man saying he was her grandson and that he was in jail in Mexico and he needed her to wire him money. She's an 80 something year old woman and got so upset. Fortunately, she called her son first and they were able to find out the grandson was fine.

 

[Roman]

Thanks for all the great advice People. It's a shame that there are some that still fall for this crap. I worry about the Elderly especially with these scams. My Grandfather had all of his Savings drained. He lived alone, and some Man befriended him. Bit by bit, he talked Grandpa out of ALL of it with his sob stories about a Child that needed a Kidney Transplant. The Kid didn't exist.

 

[daylily]

Thanks for all the great advice People. It's a shame that there are some that still fall for this crap. I worry about the Elderly especially with these scams. My Grandfather had all of his Savings drained. He lived alone, and some Man befriended him. Bit by bit, he talked Grandpa out of ALL of it with his sob stories about a Child that needed a Kidney Transplant. The Kid didn't exist.

Wow, that's beyond disgusting and there's a special place in hell for people like that man!

I'm glad that I pretty much trust nobody because there are way too many lowlifes out there. Hubby can continue to make fun of my "paranoid ways" but at least I won't get scammed!

 

[phobos512]

Wow, that's beyond disgusting and there's a special place in hell for people like that man!

I'm glad that I pretty much trust nobody because there are way too many lowlifes out there. Hubby can continue to make fun of my "paranoid ways" but at least I won't get scammed!

Reading this thread it seems like people are just randomly posting urban legends from Snopes. I swear I've read about everything in this thread years ago. They come up every few years. Usually it's my parents sending them to me.

 

[musiclady]

When my husband was first in the Navy, he called from base to say goodbye and that his ship was leaving. As soon as we hung up, I got a call saying Steven wanted to call someone collect and gave my phone as the billing address. The operator asked my permission. Having just talked to him, it didn't seem odd that he wanted to call someone long distance, like maybe his mom. So I agreed to the charges. It was a scam. Phone company cancelled the charges since we could prove that the real Steven didn't make this call. That was back in 1986, so these scams are all around.

 

[daylily]

Reading this thread it seems like people are just randomly posting urban legends from Snopes. I swear I've read about everything in this thread years ago. They come up every few years. Usually it's my parents sending them to me.

Roman said her Grandfather got screwed out of all his savings by someone who acted as though he was a friend. That's what I was so disgusted about.

As for people believing some random stranger and giving them a credit card # over the phone.....yes, I've heard that a million times.

 

[ladyhawk]

Received a call from 301-301-3032 and a gentleman with a very strong accent and very broken English wanted to talk to me about my past due gas account. I asked what account he was talking about, he said Washington Gas, I said oh ok what about it, he said we are past due oh, ok, how far behind are we? 45 days he said. OK well funny, we dont have gas, he said yes Washington Gas, ha ha, no we are all electric and he hung up on me.

So people please beware......

We got a similar phone call just the other day. They claimed they were a collections agency collecting a debt on behalf of Prometheus Labs, a company we haven't used in years and considering I haven't seen a bill, I got suspicious.

On top of that, the person calling never mentioned the name of the collection agency just who they were collecting for and expected me to pay it (900.00) over the phone. I told them I had not received a bill for that amount and would call the lab before I paid over the phone.
They hung up on me.

Because it is medically related, most people, even me, tend to overlook a medical bill and pay them over the phone. This call just seemed a bit strange.