I have unexpected money rolling in

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

I've been getting phone calls, blocked caller-id, and the speakers always have an accent.

They say that the U.S. Government has qualifed me for a seven-thousand dollar grant that I do not have to pay back. And this is because I have no criminal record and I pay my taxes.

I have a twitchy thumb that always disconnects the call before they get much further, but I know there's some "found money" out there with my name on it!

Anyone else sharing in this governmental benificence?



I think this is a most persistent group of scam artists.

[LiberalEsto]

1. It's your share of President Obama's "gifts"

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

2. Ah, so that must be a Kenyan accent I'm hearing

I thought it might be Nigerian.

Besides, the only "gift" I can think of is Romney giving himself his full deductions via an amended 1040. He doesn't have to pretend to pay 15% anymore.

I just wonder if my phone calls are part of a widespread scam.

[SheilaT]

3. Make them give you more information.

Do not give them any personal information about yourself.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

4. That might be interesting

but I think they'd be trained to not give any information, other than how fortunate I am.

The fraud is so obvious I just want to get off the phone asap. I don't even want to give them words, much less information.

[question everything]

5. Get an answering machine to answer when everyone is at home

you will be amazed how quickly they hang up. Most of them.

I once decided to go ahead and reply to that "Hi, this is Rachel from card members services."

I started giving them arbitrary numbers of my "credit card" making sure to have VISA starting with 4 and MasterCard with 5.

Have not heard them for a while. Keep my fingers crossed.