Internet Telephone Scammers

Identifying Phone Scammers - my technique

Now that the landline is rapidly going the way of the 8-track, I reckon that at least 80~90% of all the phone calls I now receive on my landline are either scammers or charity pleading calls who have harvested my number i.e. not necessarily the charities that I support. Two today at the time of writing and it’s only 10:30AM.

Any of my friends or (legitimate) business contacts who really need to contact me either call my mobile or use any of a myriad of (encrypted) social media messaging services to which I subscribe. I no longer provide a landline as my contact.

Now back to the scammers peddling their nefarious wares.

Just remember that these days, if you have provided the relevant organisation with your mobile contact, they are unlikely to call you with a “problem” on your land line because precisely because of this problem. This could include your internet provider, your bank, the tax authority etc. If they do, you will go through a lengthy, tedious procedure establishing they are really talking to you. None of the scammers that I have encountered ever attempted this.

The creeps usually know very little about you because your call is essentially random and they are using social engineering to get various details from you - fill in the blanks. They start by guessing a lot of stuff which is not hard considering; most households have an internet connection and your provider is statistically likely to be the largest of the telcos. Your computer is most likely to run Windows. So they start with a bunch of assumptions based on the guesses. So pay attention to what they are saying.

Here are some guidelines for identifying a scam call:

1. If answer a call and there is discernible delay as their crappy cheap-arse autodialer hands off to their next available pool of scamming operatives.
2. If the call has a lot of background noise (loud conversations, office static noise) whilst your’e attempting to talk understand what they’re saying.
3. If the call operators usually have distinctive (English) accents, usually from various parts of Asia - India are the Philippines are my frequent flyers.

Personally, if I have time, I usually engage, because I want to try take as much time as possible. This means of course that they have less time to try and con some other poor punter who may not be as scam savvy. I also like to make them feel as uncomfortable or worthless or guilty as possible and perhaps start to regret their career choice.

If you do choose to engage, here are some guildlines:

1. Firstly and [sic] foremostly - be careful. Better still, if you don’t know much about it, just simply hangup, immediately.
2. Do not provide any information, especially personal. Not even your name. Do not tell them:
   • Your computer configuration details like your running Windows, Mac or Linux
   • Your internet provider
   • Any serial numbers
   • Your router type or brand
3. DO NOT provide any personal information, even your general geographical location.
   • City
   • Suburb
4. If any of the details of what the scammers are saying is wrong do not correct them. That’s how they fill in the blanks. They are as some of my colleagues would say, “they’re blagging it”.
5. If, after you’ve wedged them with their own bullshit story, do not feel sorry for them. Just remember they doing something that could resulting in your own financial ruin. They don’t care neither should you.

If anyone needs to talk about this, feel free to contact me.

Perhaps not by my landline …