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Author Topic: An interesting morning for me, and a cautionary tale for everyone else.  (Read 2029 times)

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Ironhorse

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So there I was at work, minding my own business when at 7:52AM I get a NO CALLER ID call on my cell phone. A voice says “Mark Paz?” and I say “yes”. Next I hear a woman speaking Spanish in tears saying “do what they say”. Next a male gets on the phone and in Spanish tells me to “get the money, or a family member dies”.  I reply in English asking who this is, who they are calling for, and what is going on. I am quite sure this is a scam so I play along. The caller switches to English with a heavy accent and tells me that unless I get the money, he will kill a family member. I ask him which family member he is referring to, and he says “your f****** daughter”. At this point I know he is lying and I start to string him along.  I keep him on the phone for at least 45 mins waiting for security mgmt. to come in. I delay him by telling him I have to ask my wife first before going to the bank and pulling out all the money. He starts to argue. Then I tell him I just can’t walk away from work. This upsets the caller so he puts his “boss” on. The boss wants to know which bank I use, so I tell him it’s a credit union on a military base. That confused him and he puts the first guy back on the phone to have him explain it. I heard them speaking Spanish in the background. He tells me I better get going. I tell him I am leaving, but have to catch the elevator down to the fourth underground level in the garage and will probably drop the call. They didn’t know how to handle that and threatened my “daughter” more. I turn off the microphone and keep them on the line. One of our guys gets SJPD on the phone. They say that since I do NOT have a daughter, they weren’t going to do anything about it. They said it’s a scam. Now it’s time to end the call. So I get back on the phone and say, “Hello kidnappers,…I just spoke to my daughter, and she’s alright, Are you sure you have the right Mark Paz?” They reply “F**** You” and hang up.

Somehow they got my name and number off some list. Since Mark Paz is a common Hispanic name so they thought they could shake me down, make me go to the bank, pull out money and send it to them.

The most enjoyable part was keeping them on the phone, and stretching it out. If you know me and know how I think, you can imagine how much fun I had. When I told them I couldn’t leave work they asked “What’s more important, your job or your family?” I replied “Well I took this job so I’d have health care for my family, so what does that tell you?” When I told them I had to let my wife know I was taking all the money out, he got all upset and yelled, “Why does your wife have to know?” So I told him “She has the ATM card”.

All of this before 9:00am.
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"But men are men, the best sometimes forget" Shakespeare, Othello Act 2, Scene 3

ultrarider123

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All before 0900?  Wow, Mark.  I'm guessing the rest of the day wasn't quite as....interesting...
Just glad it was all a hoax but think of those that don't have the wherewithal to discern the difference...of course this may have been their first rodeo from the sound of it as they stayed on the phone with you for 45 minutes...duh, trace?

Got another one for you.  Few weeks ago I get a call on my company/gov. cell.  It's some guy from KY (according to the area code, Louisville area) who asks me to stop calling his cell and that he wasn't interested in anything I was selling.  I informed I had not called him or anyone that morning as my cell had been on my desk, in my office on federal land and hadn't been used all morning.  I'm guessing he didn't like that answer as he proceeded to call me all types of names, insulting my heritage, sexual orientation, education, race, you name it.  When he threatened to "come down there and shoot me, dead", I hung up and turned that number into the local FBI office....just in case he happened to sober up and actually attempt to follow through with his threat.

Seems there is a program/app/service that can mirror your/mine/anyone's active cell/house number and use it as a caller ID for any number.  Thieves and telemarketers (one in the same?) use things like this in their enterprising efforts, shielding their number and making it seem a legitimate call.

....ain't teknauligy great?
« Last Edit: March 07, 2018, 02:25:16 PM by Haird »
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Ironhorse

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....ain't teknauligy great?

I actually thought it was a "legitimate wrong number". My phone is similar to some dentists office, that I often get calls for. I thought this was one of those wrong number calls, so I stayed on the line. I was going to speak Spanish to them, but once I figured it out, I played along in English, overhearing their Spanish conversations in the background.

Yes, not too bright.
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"But men are men, the best sometimes forget" Shakespeare, Othello Act 2, Scene 3

mark

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Ironhorse...they're probably pretty smart scammers.  Notice they said they had your daughter?  They probably tried the same scam on some other guy, telling him they had his wife.  I'm sure that didn't result in a ransom payment either.     
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iski

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Great reaction!  These people are absolute scum & deserve whatever we hand back to them.  Cannot imagine sending these morons money. 

Get less scam calls now, used to get a lot of them.  Never got the fake kidnapping call.  If I have time (retired now so more of that than before) sometimes enjoy messing with them.  Microsoft calling to keep my computer from crashing - can stretch those out to 30 minutes or more if I feel like it.  At the end, they always cuss.  Makes my day a little brighter.
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GregKhougaz

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Good job, Mark!

One thing, never and I mean NEVER use the word, "yes" on the line with someone you do not know. If your caller is a scammer, they may use your recorded "YES" to claim that you authorized some BS contract or payment. I was actually discussing this with my personal Police Chief / PhD / Cousin just the other day...    >:(
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Ironhorse

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One thing, never and I mean NEVER use the word, "yes" on the line with someone you do not know.

Good point Greg. So how did your friend suggest we should answer the phone?
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GregKhougaz

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We both simply do not answer if the number is unknown or not in our contacts. If they don't care to leave a message, it's probably spam. If you feel you must answer do not give out any information, especially personal information. Respond to their questions with questions:

          "Is this Mark Paz?"
          "Who is calling?"

Even in the case of say, credit card fraud and your card company calls, if you're not certain it's them, call them back. OK, so I'm paranoid.   :nervous:
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Joel

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Wow what a way to stat the day.
The calls I get are about being qualified for a $50,000 loan that the money will be transferred to my account our credit card machine is tied to.
And I also never use the words YES, OK, Right, or confirm my name, and tell them the boss is out and not sure when he will be back in town.
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iski

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Greg is right.  Some of these scammers want a "yes" and will ask a number of questions designed to elicit a "yes" response.  Have had a few hang up on me after I repeated their questions and refused to say "ok" or "yes".
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Re: An interesting morning for me, and a cautionary tale for everyone else.
« Reply #10 on: March 07, 2018, 05:40:20 PM »

....

Seems there is a program/app/service that can mirror your/mine/anyone's active cell/house number and use it as a caller ID for any number.  Thieves and telemarketers (one in the same?) use things like this in their enterprising efforts, shielding their number and making it seem a legitimate call.

....ain't teknauligy great?
That is a royal PITA... One thing they haven't figured out yet and what saves me from those annoying calls is I don't answer any call that is not in my contacts. I figure if I gave you my number you shared yours and I have it in my contacts saved. If I get calls from numbers not in my contacts I don't even bother to answer... funny thing is those calls 99.9% of the time don't leave a message. ::)
Good job, Mark!

One thing, never and I mean NEVER use the word, "yes" on the line with someone you do not know. If your caller is a scammer, they may use your recorded "YES" to claim that you authorized some BS contract or payment. I was actually discussing this with my personal Police Chief / PhD / Cousin just the other day...    >:(
Another reason to never answer a call from someone not in your contacts.

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Re: An interesting morning for me, and a cautionary tale for everyone else.
« Reply #11 on: March 07, 2018, 06:14:09 PM »

Due to all the sales calls that I was getting......about a year ago I quit answering my phone if their name didn't show up on my caller ID.  Even if it showed up, if I don't know who they are......I'm not answering.

It was a real problem in the begining.  And many will hang up after your voice mail answers and then call right back again. I persevered and now, about a year later I believe my number is finally dropping off of call lists.  I only get 1 or 2 a week now.
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MIKEYTEE

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Re: An interesting morning for me, and a cautionary tale for everyone else.
« Reply #12 on: March 07, 2018, 10:20:27 PM »

I bought a hand held compressed air horn a while back. When they call and I make the mistake and answer, I speak real softly so they put their ear real close to the receiver then blast the horn.
They can't hang up quick enough.  :'(

Mike
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Re: An interesting morning for me, and a cautionary tale for everyone else.
« Reply #13 on: March 08, 2018, 11:42:42 AM »

I wish they would actually take both of my X wife's...I'd throw in some cash..
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Ironhorse

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Re: An interesting morning for me, and a cautionary tale for everyone else.
« Reply #14 on: March 08, 2018, 12:51:42 PM »

I wish they would actually take both of my X wife's...I'd throw in some cash..

Now there's a thought, if I get another call like that, I'll work that into the conversation. I had fun with him, he said "We're gonna kill a family member", I said "Which one?", he says, "What the F**** does it matter?", I said "Well, I may not like them".

I wish I recorded it to post on YouTube.
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"But men are men, the best sometimes forget" Shakespeare, Othello Act 2, Scene 3
 

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