Damn those Scams

I got another call from that damn number. I refuse to pick it up, because, well, I think its a waste of time to reason with these scammers. You think that if I ask them nicely with sugar on top that they’ll even give a moment’s thought about taking me off of some list, or that they’ll feel like its their moral obligation to not bother me? Hell no. They want to take my money, and if they can’t, they’ll hang up and pester me another time when they think I’ve forgotten. God I hate these telemarketers

So my sister of all people got her identity stolen. Someone had swiped her contact info along with her credit card information somehow. She theorizes that it was done when she made an online donation to the Darfour relief effort. She was lucky since she monitors her credit card activity quite frequently and noticed charges being made to porn sites. She called her credit card company up and they automatically refunded her the charges and closed the account. They said there were also two pending charges that they would follow up with, but it didn’t seem to be a big deal. She thought that was the end of it. But it wasn’t.

The “two pending charges” are apparently for an eBay listing this scammer had posted selling a used car that doesn’t exist.

Apparently someone else got scammed in the process of all of this. The same identity thief used her contact info to register an account on eBay and sold some unsuspecting guy 3 states away a car. He took the money and then gave the guy my sister’s contact info. So now he’s calling asking where his car is, and of course she doesn’t have it.

She immediately contacted eBay about it, and they said their “Investigations Department” would look into it. She has also contacted the local police department to file a report just to have everything documented. This is what inflames me about eBay, they’re a multi-billion dollar company, but what responsibility do they have to their customers when incidents like this happen? What are their duties in restitution?

eBay might be a blessing to some, but more and more, its becoming a big curse to most.

NPR apparently did a story this morning about online privacy and while this was happening, I got visited by someone at NPR.org. I can only assume that Steve Inskeep was listening to the story and decided to google himself. All the while, I was listening to the story and was wondering how easy it was to get someone’s information and use it for evil purposes. Within the 5 minute story, I was able to dig around, find out how old Steve Inskeep was, where he lived, how much he paid for his house, when he bought it, and how much it was going to be worth in 2007 (triple its value).

I got a call yesterday for a defunct domain I used to own and another woman on the other end with an Indian accent butchered my name and then proceeded to ask me if I owned the aforementioned domain. Again, butchering the domain name pronounciation. I told her it was expired, and that I did not want to continue this conversation and hung up.

Seriously people, are they that hard up to make a buck that they’re dumpster diving into expired domain registrations? I’m also wondering who’s selling these lists. Is it Yahoo? Since that’s who I registered the domain with (back in 99 or 2000, I don’t even remember.) Is it Network Solutions or ICANN that handles most of the domain registrations? I don’t know, but its making me pretty peeved that once I pay these hucksters for my domains, they feel completely feel no responsibility to guard my privacy.

Another 001819 scam? Sounds like it after I googled it and found so many people having the same issue. I just got the call from this phone number, 866-383-0986, and I didn’t know, so I picked up. Luck was on my side though, since I was out at one of my favorite burger joints in Virginia (Elevation Burger) and it was extremely loud, so I couldn’t hear anything. From what I could decipher, it sounded like an Indian accented woman, but I kept screaming, “I can’t hear you” into the phone. After a few seconds, I guess she gave up and hung up. Karma was on my side for once.

I know Verizon and Cingular have already started suing these scammers, but I’m glad T-mobile has jumped on the bandwagon, since I do use their service.

From yahoo news:

BELLEVUE, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jan. 23, 2006–In an effort to restrain the unlawful activities of entities that attempt to fraudulently obtain confidential customer information, T-Mobile USA, Inc. is bringing legal action against online data brokers the company believes are involved in illegitimately obtaining and selling call records. Acting under Washington State criminal profiteering laws, T-Mobile today filed suit in King County, Wash., Superior Court seeking an injunction to stop Locatecell.com, as well as related companies and individuals, from allegedly engaging in such illegal behavior. T-Mobile also is prepared to take similar legal action against other believed violators.

I’ve always wondered how these scammers are starting to get cell phone numbers as well as any relevant referential information from those numbers, now I know.  Damn these scumbags

From engadget:

Your cellphone provider may have a detailed privacy policy that would seem to protect your calling records and other personal data from data brokers. But it looks like the data pirates have the upper hand as they’ve begun stooping to tactics like pretending to be handicapped customers and service provider employees, with the aim of wresting your info from gullible call-center workers

After receiving 2 phone calls from this number, I googled it and was annoyed that somehow, my phone number had leaked into the spam-machine of scam/telemarketing according to this link to Rippoffreport.com.

I called T-mobile to report it, and see if I could have it blocked and the best answer they had for me was that they could change my phone number. So there-in lies the rub, you can now keep your phone number, and take it to any carrier, and no one is ever going to lose your number, and they’ll always be able to contact you, but what happens when your phone number is poisoned? Do you give up all the benefits to keep your privacy? What a pain the ass.

I registered my cell phone number on http://donotcall.gov as suggested by someone. They called about 6 or 7 times, each time I ignored the call. Strangely enough, after I registered, they’ve called twice but each time I had missed the call since I didn’t have my phone on me. Next time they call, I’m actually going to pick up and alert them that I am on the list, and kindly request them to take me off their list, and if they don’t, I probably have some legal recourse. Oh how I hate telemarketers.