How worried should I be (phone scam)

I had the “cable company” call me once when I was considering switching to offer me a sweet deal…I think I confirmed a name and address (which they had) but then they started going through my “account” and had the wrong number of cable boxes and maybe some other details. I questioned them as a scam, they laughed, and then hung up. Nothing ever happened, but I don’t think they got far enough to get anything useful or new. I was paranoid enough to check a credit report a few weeks later.

This is common. If their domestic number is 800-VERIZON but their international number is 888-(something else), they’ll buy 888-VERIZON.

Rinse repeat for ten thousand numbers under the same concept, going down to even local businesses. I had this happen to a local landscaper.

would deal with this via verizon ASAP

friend was last week the victim of the portage scam. basically, based on phone account related info (like what you shared maybe) they were able to take control of the number, port the number to a new carrier, then use it to access a lot of accounts that use the phone as a 2nd factor of identifying you. banks, payment apps, etc. friend said it was a HUGE PIA to deal with.

good luck.

The number i called from (and about) is a landline. So I’m really not worried someone will use it to verify a lot of accounts.

I guess losing it would be a nuisance. I hope Verizon requires more verification than my address to move a number, though.

got it. doesn’t mean the scammers will realize that. could be a small pia

what’s that? /s

It’s an old fashioned device that can take phone calls in your house when your house is in the middle of a cell phone desert.

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humanitarian crisis

On the phone with them the first time for about 15 mins. Was supposed to get free $100 gift card. But I needed to give them my credit card #. Made up a bogus one and it “didn’t go through,” so they asked me to repeat is ad nasuem. I said there must be a problem with my bank and asked to be transferred to the service dept, but they said they were unable to, not until the verification went thru. Then they put me on with the ‘supervisor.’ I gave him the numbers 4 or 5 more times. eventually they hung up on me.

All the while I was answering emails at work, so I wasn’t idle.

Then I found a website that generates fake credit card numbers. gave me a fake name and everything.

So I called back. Much smoother. Though they called me by my first fake name I gave them: James Davis. I told them I was Andy Kelly and they went ahead with the process. The new, face cc # seemed to not come back as invalid. They even had me go through the “verification process” with Visa. computer generated questions asked me to repeat the numbers and dates and stuff. They guy even pressed the keypad on his end to mimic the computer doing calculations. At the end, he thanked me for my time and said my card will be mailed out the next day. This call was about 17 mins.

For both of these calls, I gave the address and home phone of a local police department.

Bummer thing is they never transferred me over to the service department…

So overall, at least, one of their operators was out of commission for about half an hour across the two calls.

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Trying to scam BG5150 outta cash is for suckers. :smiling_imp:

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I occasionally get spam solicitations via whatsapp, and lately I’ve sometimes trolled them back with fake solicitations of my own. Hadn’t had any react until this past week. He got upset I think as his last response was “what the fuck you man”

Thanks! I’m happy to read how the rest of the call played out. And that they asked for a credit card number makes me feel better about having given them my address.

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How does this work? Do they just need a number that’s ‘reasonably’ valid - as in, I know that some of the digits are related to the card issuer, and some are in there as checks to ensure it’s a valid or valid-ish number.

So what happens on their end when they type in this fake number? It passes the first sniff test, and then presumably they try to charge it, and that fails?

At any rate, :toth: to you.

Did you reply back correcting his grammar?

My reply to that was “Your account is now overdrawn. We will be contacting the authorities if you do not settle your financial commitments promptly”

I imagine he’s done now that he realized it’s a return troll job, but we’ll see.

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Seems so. They were all over my self-made up number. But the one from here kept them going at least: Credit Card Generator - Fake Credit Card Numbers

From the page: * Card numbers valid as per specifications: Even though these numbers are fake, they still follow the standards followed by each credit card issuer. This is done to ensure that systems can easily verify that a customer has entered a valid credit card number.

That makes sense. So they’ve figured out the rules like ‘Chase credit cards start with 1234,’ and ‘the ninth digit is the sum of the last four digits modulo 7’ or whatever it is. So it passes the first screen of not being obviously fake. And that is enough to keep them on the line. Fun.

I’ve save the info for other scammers

I just get text scammers sending me pics of girls with big boobies asking me if I miss them.

Wrong audience.

I used to share a Hotmail account with two gay guys. (We were officers of a gay club.) The interface was horrible, and featured little ads all over the screen. On the lower right, there were always “texts” from women with screen names like “bigboobsforyou”. Yeah, wrong audience.