MSN: "This Is Why You Should Never Call Back an Unknown Number"

leno...@yahoo.com

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Mar 6, 2019, 7:29:26 PM3/6/19

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/this-is-why-you-should-never-call-back-an-unknown-number/ar-BBUrJP4?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout

First half:

We’ve all had it happen: You look at your phone and notice a missed call from a familiar-looking number that isn’t in your contacts. Your first instinct might be to call back and see who it was, but that’s the last thing you should do.

You might assume calling back is safe because a number happens to be from your area code. Is it your doctor? Your kid’s principal? A neighbor? Unfortunately, the answer is probably none of those, says Adam Levin, founder of CyberScout and author of Swiped: How to Protect Yourself in a World of Scammers, Phishers, and Identity Thieves. Scammers 'are adept at spoofing phone numbers for caller ID purposes,' he says. So just because a number shares your area code doesn’t mean the caller is from your town. Crooks purposely use familiar area codes to gain your trust. Don’t miss these other sneaky ways con artists win your trust...

(snip)

Lenona.

ItsJoan NotJoann

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Mar 6, 2019, 9:37:18 PM3/6/19

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Without fail, any local number I have called back I immediately get the tone
and announcement "the number you've called is no longer in service." In
other words some lowlife scammer has spoofed a disconnected number. Now, when
I receive a call from an unknown number I simply ignore it. The name on my
caller id always show "unavailable." Any that are stupid enough to persist
in calling again are blocked using my Pro Call Blocker device.

The Real Bev

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Mar 7, 2019, 12:19:44 PM3/7/19

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On 03/06/2019 06:37 PM, ItsJoan NotJoann wrote:

> Without fail, any local number I have called back I immediately get
> the tone and announcement "the number you've called is no longer in
> service." In other words some lowlife scammer has spoofed a
> disconnected number. Now, when I receive a call from an unknown
> number I simply ignore it. The name on my caller id always show
> "unavailable." Any that are stupid enough to persist in calling
> again are blocked using my Pro Call Blocker device.

I get a lot of spam calls with the first 6 numbers of my phone number.
These are generally a recorded message from a Chinese woman -- in
Mandarin. I would guess this happens because those digits belonged to a
majority-Asian area back when we could tell where a caller was from by
the first 6 digits.

I just reject them.

--
Cheers, Bev
Some people are like Slinkies... Not really good for
anything, but they still bring a smile to your face
when you push them down a flight of stairs.

Bob F

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Mar 7, 2019, 8:15:37 PM3/7/19

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On 3/7/2019 9:19 AM, The Real Bev wrote:
> On 03/06/2019 06:37 PM, ItsJoan NotJoann wrote:
>
>> Without fail, any local number I have called back I immediately get
>> the tone and announcement "the number you've called is no longer in
>> service." In other words some lowlife scammer has spoofed a
>> disconnected number. Now, when I receive a call from an unknown
>> number I simply ignore it. The name on my caller id always show
>> "unavailable." Any that are stupid enough to persist in calling
>> again are blocked using my Pro Call Blocker device.
>
> I get a lot of spam calls with the first 6 numbers of my phone number.
> These are generally a recorded message from a Chinese woman -- in
> Mandarin. I would guess this happens because those digits belonged to a
> majority-Asian area back when we could tell where a caller was from by
> the first 6 digits.
>
> I just reject them.
>

No. It happens because there is a major scam going on to steal the money
of Chinese people.

The Real Bev

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Mar 7, 2019, 9:02:00 PM3/7/19

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Of course. Easier than home invasions or holding children hostage.
They did a lot of that around here too. Probably still do, but I don't
get much local news since I canceled the local fishwrap.

--
Cheers, Bev
"Go back to sleep, citizen. Your government has
everything under control." -Bill Hicks

Bob F

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Mar 7, 2019, 9:33:18 PM3/7/19

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https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=chinese+phone+call+scam

The Real Bev

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Mar 8, 2019, 1:33:29 AM3/8/19

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Interesting. There's a huge local Asian population, many of whom are
extremely well off. Many remain in China, but buy houses in a nearby
wealthy city with an excellent school system and send their children to
live alone to go to school. Several of these children were held hostage.

BTW, the Do Not Call List is fairly worthless. Before getting Ooma we
received several calls a day from local home remodeling people who
claimed to not know what the DNCL was. They probably didn't.

Ooma is ~$5/month after buying the device -- $80 is the lowest price
I've seen it for. We also bought a Sentry 2 device, which screens out
ALL robocalls and 98% of the spammers.

--
Cheers, Bev
"History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people
maintaining a free civil government."
-- letter from Thomas Jefferson to Baron vonHumboldt, 1813

tra...@optonline.net

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Mar 9, 2019, 7:20:56 AM3/9/19

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Same here. If it's important, they can leave a message. And I have
ShouldIAnswer on my cell phone. It has a database of known telemarketers,
scammers, etc, and will identify and block those. You can also report new
numbers to be added to the database, good or bad ones, eg if it shows your
local doc as unknown, you can mark it as valid and what it is.