WARNING: Cell Phone Scams

This morning just after eight am my cell phone rang. I was surprised because I don't get a lot of calls on my cell phone. I hadn't been up very long and was still working on my first cup of coffee so I was not yet mentally awake.

I have a land line and my family and friends usually call me on that phone. I live literally out in the boonies so I have a cell phone for when I go to town which is 86 miles away. The cell phone is basically for emergencies.

I didn't recognize the phone number that came up but I decided to answer anyway. You never know if family or friends are calling from another number.

The call went something like this:

Me: "hello"
Caller: "Congratulations, you have won 95,000 dollars and a mumble, mumble car which is red."
Me: "Oh?"
Caller: " I am calling from the Publishers Clearing House office in Albuquerque. This is ligit."
Me: thinking: yeah, right..."Ok, then you know my name?"
Caller: "I have called your cell phone. Mumble, mumble your first and last name."
Me: "So, you know my name?"

The caller hung up. Why was I not surpised?

The caller had either an East Indian accent or an Arabic accent.
The number of the caller was 1-876-407-0772. I'm posting the number here so others who might receive calls from it can be forwarned.

Has anyone else received a call like this? It really is a shame that people prey on others. Whatever the new technology, evil people will find a way to use it to scam the innocent and naive.

I had a hard time deciding whether to put this in general chit chat or rave forum. Mods, move this if you need to.

Sounds like Ed McMahon was drunk dialing again.

Did you call it back? This number has been involved in several incidents. A quick google check reveals this

reply to post by 1PLA1


I have gotten calls like this on my landline many times.It had gotten so
bad that we had to have our phone number changed to an unlisted one.
I don't get very many phishing calls like this anymore.Good luck.

Originally posted by DarthMuerte
Did you call it back? This number has been involved in several incidents. A quick google check reveals this

Yes, I dialed the number back.
Got a recording saying the number could not be completed.

I looked at your link and it reminded me that the caller did say I had won a package worth $95,000.00.

Thanks for posting the link.

I don't know how often this happens in the US of A but over here it's bad. I get calls from people saying i've won this and that, people telling me I have a virus on my computer. I get calls from people saying I can claim ££££'s for an accident I wasn't even in. So many cold calls from different people for different things.

It's like they're part of the family now though. If i'm in a good mood i'll play along for a bit until we get to the details part and i'll say something like... I don't own any phones. Confuse em' a little...

I usually google the number and see what comes up. There are loads of sites out there dedicated to posting cold call numbers.

reply to post by SilentE


Too funny SilentE. A sense of humor does help in coping with this nonsense.

I'll have to remember the I don't own any phones response.

Originally posted by 1PLA1

Originally posted by DarthMuerte
Did you call it back? This number has been involved in several incidents. A quick google check reveals this

Yes, I dialed the number back.
Got a recording saying the number could not be completed.

I looked at your link and it reminded me that the caller did say I had won a package worth $95,000.00.

Thanks for posting the link.

I just had a thought.... it hurts

What if, one day, one of us actually won something. Be it a car or a lump sum....and we tell him/her where to go... We'd never know!! ]

Originally posted by 1PLA1
reply to post by SilentE

 

Too funny SilentE. A sense of humor does help in coping with this nonsense.

I'll have to remember the I don't own any phones response.

It's the best way to not lose your rag.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a phone though. If it's your IP address they're after, you can tell them you don't have a laptop... after going through the process with them first though....otherwise, it's not that funny.

Use your imagination!

Pretty good site that has phone numbers posted that were submitted by intended victims:
CallerTattler

I'm not surprised. I received a call like that, too. Although mine came from this number: 516-506-0055. Told me I won $1 million and a brand new Mercedes. But as much as it would be nice to get all that, I knew it was a scam. I told the caller I've been scammed before and because of that, I requested for the police to tap into my phone line and they heard what the caller told me. The caller hung up right away.

And guess what? I looked up the phone number online and here's what I got: www.callercenter.com... . It looks like somebody else received a call from that scammer, too.


Could these phone numbers be related? After all, they're of the same strategies.

Originally posted by SilentE

Originally posted by 1PLA1

Originally posted by DarthMuerte
Did you call it back? This number has been involved in several incidents. A quick google check reveals this

Yes, I dialed the number back.
Got a recording saying the number could not be completed.

I looked at your link and it reminded me that the caller did say I had won a package worth $95,000.00.

Thanks for posting the link.

I just had a thought.... it hurts

What if, one day, one of us actually won something. Be it a car or a lump sum....and we tell him/her where to go... We'd never know!!

]

edit on 11-12-2012 by SilentE because: (no reason given)

Ed McMahon will show up on my doorstep if I win something from Publisher's Clearing House.

Basically, one must enter a contest to win. I don't enter contests because they just want my address, phone number and email address. So, I am sure I haven't won anything from anyone.