Damn those Scams

A friend posted this last week and I got her permission to repost it here to alert everyone else:

Has anyone else been getting crank calls in Spanish asking you to call some 1-800 number back and when the man talks it sounds like he was cut off mid conversation when he leaves a msg? They keep calling a couple times a week on my cell phone. I have no idea how they got hold of my number. After talking to a few co-workers, they’ve also said they’ve gotten the same thing. Strange. What is that all about? Hmm.

And the Truth about Cell Phones and the Do Not Call Registry List from the Federal Trade Commission.
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/01/dnccellphones.htm

Apparently, I have seen fake websites and mass e-mails passed around scamming people into putting their numbers into these fake cell phone registries. What happened was the opposite. Instead of getting your number blocked, you end up getting more calls. Only the FTC site and number are legitimate. Remember there is only ONE DNC Registry. There is no separate registry for cell phones.

EDIT- a few mins of googling brought me to:

Two pages that had the same exact complaint. File a report on them and DO NOT CALL the missed number or number left in the voicemail back. It’s a scam to get you to pay for the crook’s calls.
https://digitalstylz.wordpress.com/2006/03/28/786-879-6669/

http://www.clampants.com/archives/000232.html

And a page about all the different kinds of phone frauds and how to stop them. Wow! I didn’t know there were that many!

http://www.consumer-action.org/english/articles/264#Topic_02

Maybe I’ll disconnect my cell phone and go back to using pagers. This is ridiculous. Or better yet, just send me a good, old fashioned snail mail.

The washington post has an article on how even if you get scammed into writing a check to a scammer, you’re stuck paying back the bank. Worth a read, there’s even a check list of “Telltale Methods of Check Scammers.”

Schaefer is one of thousands of consumers who have been victimized by an increasingly common check scam that relies on the vagaries of the banking system to take advantage of unsuspecting consumers.

Federal rules require banks to release funds from a consumer’s deposit quickly, usually within one to five business days, depending on the kind of check. However, it can take weeks before a bank discovers a check is fraudulent.

Read more