“The Dirty Dozen”

[jiminbartow]

This is OT but I believe is important enough to post for our members, many of which are elderly, not very tech savvy and possibly susceptible to scammers who try to scam the elderly by phone.

Last night on the news, they did a segment on “The Dirty Dozen”. A list of the twelve phone numbers most commonly used by scammers to call the elderly to try and get their personal banking information in order to scam them out of their money. The news anchors suggested their viewers block the numbers from their phone. During the segment, they posted the numbers and I took a screen shot and am posting it below. I took their advice and have already blocked the numbers from my phone so they cannot call me. I suggest you and your friends do the same. I blocked each number by dialing the number into my phone. No one will answer. The phone company comes on and says the number is no longer in service. Immediately hang up and if your phone is like mine, the block button will appear and you can block the number then go to the next number. After all the numbers have been blocked, you can then delete the numbers from your call history.

If anyone is upset that I posted an OT thread here, I will move it to OT or delete it altogether, but I do think it is important. Admin should also feel free to delete it or move it to OT if they feel it violates their OT Policy. Jim Patrick

[George House]

You done good Jim. But DON’T call the numbers individually ! Instead, set them up in your address book with Scam 1, Scam 2, etc with their respective numbers. Then proceed to block them. Leave them in your address book if you want to see if your call blocking worked. Then later, if you get a call from Scam 9, you’ll know it didn’t work but you’ll be aware of a scam call. Or, block them after entering then delete….YMMV

[tdump]

If you dial the number,won't it show up on their system? Thus showing " we gotta live 1 here boss"? these are hackers we are talking about,not idiots. The "number no longer active" or whatever message you hear,could be Their system talking to you instead of windscream or at-t.
Once they determine "they gotta live 1", they can call using other numbers.

[JohnM]

The best thing to do is, if you are not expecting a call, or you don't recognize the number, don't answer. Let it go to voice mail. If it's important, they'll leave a message. If they don't, well , I guess it's not important.

[TXGOAT2]

The jerks will try anything. They may target rural area codes in hopes of hitting older, retired people.
I got one call from a clown who identified himself as "Officer Robert From Social Security". That call came from a Connecticut area code.

[tdump]

My dads girlfriend was in the hospital for about 2 weeks. 2 or 3 times a day, my dad would answer the phone for her to hear this,"Can you hear me now" in a whispery voice.On a hospital room number! I guess it was just the fact they had a live number from their random computer spit out and just kept dialing it.

[Mark Nunn]

I have caller ID on my home phone and would get calls that were spoofed to look like a neighbor. I did not answer if there was no recognizable name listed. Then a strange thing happened. One day, I received a call and caller ID showed my name! I assure you that I did not call myself. I kind of wanted to answer just for fun but chickened out.