Beware of new phone scam: "Your amazon prime account will resume unless you press 1"

[lindysalsagal]

I didn't press 1, I disconnected, and I went online to my amazon account, and there is no such "auto renewal by credit card."

DON'T PRESS 1!

[gratuitous]

1. Phone scam?

You mean that guy yesterday who called to tell me my social security number had been suspended and if I didn't talk to him, I was going to get arrested may not have been legit?

I hate that having a telephone number is an open invitation for every scamster on the fucking planet, and that the phone companies, cellular providers, and our government are powerless to do a thing about it. Or maybe they just don't want to, and they don't mind seeing customers and citizens ripped off.

[AllaN01Bear]

7. yes, as the so called agent didnt know your security questions .

all real social security agents know your securitiy questions and them alone .

[ProfessorGAC]

16. Got That Call

Guy asked me for my SS#.
I said, "Why don't you tell me what it is, and I'll confirm it". Click!

[Ms. Toad]

2. Two points -

My Prime account DOES auto-renew by credit card. That's how most electronic accounts renew - until you tell them to stop, they auto-renew.

But to your main point - it is a basic principle of contract law that you cannot be forced to speak (by pressing 1) in order to avoid entering a contract. There are exceptions, but they are very few - and generally require your active participation in an accept-by-silence scheme in the past.

It's a common tactic to try to trick you into responding, but failure to do so is not legally binding.

[brush]

3. I got a call saying there were fraudulent charges on my...

Amazon Prime account...and I don't have an Amazon Prime account. I played along with them for a while on the phone before calling them out as a scam and hanging up.

[Sherman A1]

4. Excellent!

Did that once eons ago with an obscene caller. It was a hoot! They hung up on me.

[SCantiGOP]

5. My favorites are the car warranty scams

We have a 10 year old car that is still running perfectly so I see no reason to trade it.
At least once a month I will get a card in the mail, designed to look like a Dept of Motor Vehicles notice, warning me that my car has just gone out of warranty and I will have to pay thousand of dollars for repairs next week if I don't immediately call them and renew my warranty.
This is also one of the most common spam phone calls, but if you aren't in my phone directory I won't be answering.

If someone does send me a pre-paid envelope for something that is either a scam or an unwanted spam solicitation, I fill it out with the phone and address of the fraud division of our State Consumer Affairs Division.

[mitch96]

8. Just to piss them off I say I want to talk to them and can you hold on for a minute?

I put the phone down and walk away.... after a bit of time they hang up.. If they want to waste my time, I'll waste theirs.... HA!
m

[lindysalsagal]

24. That's my sop: "Wait, I'll get her......."

I never stick around to see how long they wait.

[mitch96]

27. So far it's about 2 min wait if the kid is really hungry for a score. most is about a 1 min nt

[TlalocW]

9. The area code for my phone

Is apparently getting slammed by calls from "your credit card company" wanting to offer you a 0% interest rate for being such a good customer as if a cc company would ever call you to offer a better deal and especially wouldn't offer 0%. I have an old credit card from around 2000 (I keep mine as sometimes I need to jimmy open a locked door) that I'll give them. They'll put me on hold t check it and come back and tell me that it didn't work. I'll ask them to read it back to me. Oh, wow, I transposed two numbers. On hold. It didn't work. Read it back Oh, that 0 is really a worn down 8, I'm so sorry. Didn't work. Can I try a different card?

Usually three times they know you're messing with them, but I kept a guy on for over 20 minutes, and he eventually handed me over to "his manager." The guy came on and asked my name.

Me: Last name is Keyface. K-E-Y-F-A-C-E.
Manager: Yes, thank you, Mister Keyface, and may I have your first name?
Me: It's Don.
Manager. Thank you. So I'm talking with Don Keyface?
Me: Yes.
- Five seconds of silence -
Manager (angrily): You motherf***ing son-of-a-bitch.
Me: Finally figured out I've been messing you, huh?
- Hangup -

TlalocW

[ProfessorGAC]

17. That Might Not Be A Scam

Credit card companies do fishing calls, offering very low, even zero rates, for a while. (3 or 6 months).
I've gotten these calls from total legit sources.
BOA, Discover, AmEx. And I checked the ID number on line. The calls were actually from those places.
I'd never do any such transaction by phone anyway. But, these weren't scams.

[TlalocW]

20. Noooooo... no no no no

I have no credit cards, and they ask you to "verify" your credit card number by reading it to them. You don't do that. Also, they always announce themselves as calling from, "Card Services," and not BOA, Discover, etc.

Nopers.

TlalocW

[ProfessorGAC]

21. That's Different

Those fishing calls are based upon card holder status that is, for sound lending reasons, available to all real issuers.
If you don't have a credit card, the issuers wouldn't call to offer one.
Mail? Yes
Cold calls? No
The CU of which I was a board member for 19 years, and an officer for 13, would NEVER do that.

[brush]

18. Oh, you're bad. I love it. "Don Keyface." The guy actually cursed?

[TlalocW]

22. Oh, hell yes.

I've been cursed at multiple times by scammers when they realize you're wasting their time. One guy even starting calling me racial slurs assuming I was Black and living in Africa (I'm White, but I guess something about that particular credit card number I gave them flagged me as living in Ghana). One guy - for a different scam and sounded American - actually laughed and told me good job after I wasted his time, and a caller for this cc scam actually sounded hurt when he realized I was messing with him.

Other times I'll yell in my deepest voice, "GIVE ME BACK MY SON BEFORE I CALL THE POLICE, DEBBIE!" Normally just a hang-up at that point.

Lately though I haven't had time to play with them so I've gotten kind of mean. I have a set response to their opening, "How are you doing today?" that implies that I slept with their mother for money, and even she's disappointed in what they do for a living.

Get cursed at a lot for that.

There's been a spate of calls from a "police officer charity" from a neighboring area code that their script has them asking if they can speak to Tonya and then when you tell them there's no one named Tonya that lives there, they try to start in on their spiel. I've started telling them to wait a moment so I can get her, and when "Tonya" talks to them, I'm doing my best Monty Python woman's voice. "HellOOOOOOO, Mrs. Non-Gorilla! Have you been shopping today?"

This was pre-Covid and still continuing to this day so I've always have had too much time on my hands.

TlalocW

[TlalocW]

23. Also, not a scam, but a few times last year

I would get voicemail alerts on my phone when it had never rung. Apparently, there was a way to bypass actually calling you to do that, but it seems like the providers have fixed that little bug. Of course, anyone who did that was an asshole and earned my wrath so I remember a guy from New Jersey sending me one (I'm in Kansas) about his t-shirt business, and when I dialed his number back, it was a recording asking me to leave a message. So I called back and read the transcript of the speech below until I filled up his mailbox. Also just played it to the phone a few times.

TlalocW

[lindysalsagal]

25. Shakespeare. Pure Shakespeare.

We need a "We Are Not Worthy" emoji!

[Midnight Writer]

6. I got a phone call from the Census Bureau wanting to confirm my Social Security number.

And a notice from my credit card company that the Small Business Administration was running a credit check on me regarding a loan application. I have made no loan application to the SBA or anyone else.

Christ, you'd almost think this country was run by con artists.

[TlalocW]

11. A lot of them are overseas

There's a YouTube series by a guy well-versed in computer scams, and he's able to actually track down the physical address of the places people call him from - often small offices. Often in trying to take control of his computer to fix whatever "security issue" it has, he's able to gain access to theirs and finds Skype chat messages, etc. and starts referring to the scammer by his name and referencing his co-workers and things they say in the chat.

TlalocW

[lagomorph777]

12. See, that's what we need at the government level.

Scare the shit out of Putin's goons; grab 'em when they travel, etc.

[Midnight Writer]

13. The fellow from "The Census Bureau" had a very thick foreign accent.

[lindysalsagal]

26. I've heard the audio of a real Microsoft programmer taking out an entire office of

computers in an indian call center. He actually gets the indian to type dos code in that spreads to the other computers and fdisks them all simultaneously. It's the most brilliant thing I've ever heard. The guy's shrieking in indian...."WHAT DID YOU DOOOOOO?????"

[GoCubsGo]

10. This is why I never answer the phone if I don't recognize the number.

I just let it go to the answering machine. Most of the time, they won't even leave a message.

[ananda]

15. I got the same call.

I hung up and blocked the number.

[Buns_of_Fire]

19. I've gotten three emails since last Saturday.

Last edited Thu Jul 23, 2020, 04:12 PM - Edit history (1)

One supposedly from Amazon, telling me that my iPhone order was confirmed -- but IF I didn't make this order, here's a number to call...

The next day, I got a message saying that shipment is imminent -- but IF I didn't make this order, here's another number to call. Oh, plus two links, one to the order number itself (which doesn't look like any Amazon order number I've ever seen), and a button to TRACK the order I didn't make...

Both times I went to Amazon and checked my orders. Nothing there, naturally.

Yesterday, I got a notification that my order for $499.95 worth of Bitcoins had been processed -- but IF I didn't make this order, etc., etc., etc.

Needless to say: (1) Don't panic; (2) Don't bother calling the number (unless you just want to screw with them a little); and (3) DON'T click on any links.

Here's an article that has some more red flags to look for: https://hip2save.com/tips/amazon-scams/