Has anybody received a call like this? (1 Viewer)

[David Preston]

I beleive its a telemarketer and they call from an unknown name and unknown number. When you answer they ask about your phone system. They say how long haved you had this number and how long have you lived where you do now. Then they ask do you have a checking acount? Does anybody know what this is for. Have you had any crazy telemarketer calls?

 

[Rob Gardiner]

When I get a call like this, I give the phone to my roommmate who is from New York where they speak in "colorful metaphors". After an earful of these metaphors, I usually do not receive a second call.

 

[Moe Maishlish]

Then they ask do you have a checking acount?

Your CHECKING ACCOUNT?!??!

The second they start asking about something like that I'd be hanging up the phone. It's no one's business where, how, or with whom I do my banking.

(Well, except the government, and all my debtors... but that's another locked-thread alltogether)

Moe.

 

[Julie K]

I would be suspicious of a scam if asked about my checking account.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

As with anything like this, when I'm asked, unsolicited, for personal information that I do not wish to give out, I make up outrageous and obvious lies, and repeat them with conviction.

One time I told a telemarketer for an eavstrough cleaning service that I did not need them because I live in an underground bunker. And I told a salesperson for an energy-saving door and window company that I required neither because my home was "open concept". Not believing me, he asked, "What do you do in the winter?"

I told him that I wear a coat.

 

[Eric_L]

I feel a responsibility to end a scammer so I will often tell them I just had unexpected company arrive but am very interested in speaking with them more. I will ask for a return phone number. IF they offer to call back I lie about going on vacation for an extended time.

If I get the number I call it back to confirm, then will give it to the police.

 

[James T]

Scams happen a lot.

There's also some phone scams where they pretend to be the phone company and then ask you push a couple buttons on your phone, then hang up. The end result is giving the caller permission to use your service for his/her long distance need

 

[Bob Graz]

I don't answer any calls that show up unknown or from places I'm not aware of. Saves me a lot of aggravation and wasted time. Thank goodness for caller ID.

 

[RudyN]

I don't answer any calls that show up unknown or from places I'm not aware of. Saves me a lot of aggravation and wasted time. Thank goodness for caller ID.

I'm exactly the same way.

 

[Bry_DD]

Everytime i get a call from a telemarketer I always tell them i'm busy and just call back and they never do

 

[David Preston]

I tried not answering for a while but they are persistent its aggravating. I told them I don't have a checking acount pay everything by money order. Most of the time I don't answer but I get a call from Mexico sometimes and its important and it shows up unknown. I just won't answer any of thier questions again. I hate scams.

 

[Tommy Ceez]

I would be suspicious of a scam if asked about my checking account.

Your not suspicious of SCAMS in general?

 

[Julie K]

Your not suspicious of SCAMS in general?

The call in the original post seems more like a scam than a legitimate telemarketer call. I'm not sure why you don't think I'm suspicious in general.

 

[Ryan Wright]

There's also some phone scams where they pretend to be the phone company and then ask you push a couple buttons on your phone, then hang up. The end result is giving the caller permission to use your service for his/her long distance need

No, this is a scam directed at businesses with PBX systems. They call up and ask you to transfer them to a certain extension, which is usually a main PBX control extension. This allows them to then dial back out of your PBX system for as long as they want - and you pay twice (once for their incoming call, since they called your 800 number, and then again for the outgoing long distance call). This does not affect home users because most of us don't have telephone servers running Unix sitting in our basements, connected to $600/month T1 lines.

My favorite call went something like this:

Them: "You've won a grandfather clock!"
Me (not remembering entering any contest): "Cool."
Them: "Just give us your credit card number to cover shipping and we'll get it right out to you."
Me: "I don't THINK so... " (click)

 

[Chris Hovanic]

I have a fried that asks the telemarketer to tell him a joke and if it makes him laugh he will listen to their sales pitch. If he does not laugh he does not. 9 out of 10 times they cant even think of a joke.

I get phone calls and no one is there all the time. Or worse yet solisitation for some one else that I just found out yesterday has been dead for several months.

 

[Craig Robertson]

I get phone calls and no one is there all the time

happens all the time in my house. i've been told that the telemarketers are using equip that dials several #'s at the same time and when one unlucky bastard picks up the rest of us get the "no one there" call.

 

[Tommy Ceez]

I have a fried that asks the telemarketer to tell him a joke and if it makes him laugh he will listen to their sales pitch. If he does not laugh he does not. 9 out of 10 times they cant even think of a joke.

As if telemarketing is not hard enough they have to act as a trained seal in order to get thier pitch out. Thank god for the 'do not call' list.

 

[Mark Schermerhorn]

The nice thing about having only a cell phone is that I don't get ANY telemarketing calls anymore, other than from Sprint, since they know my number. But those are quite rare.

 

[David Lawson]

You think you have it bad? My home number previously belonged to the Gay & Lesbian Community Center, and they apparently haven't updated most of their stationery or literature for the past three years.

 

[Ryan Wright]

i've been told that the telemarketers are using equip that dials several #'s at the same time and when one unlucky bastard picks up the rest of us get the "no one there" call.

Not several #'s. Several hundred - or thousand - depending on the size of the firm. A buddy of mine managed the I.T. infrastructure for a telemarketing firm in our town. They have 30 some odd employees "on the floor". The computer system dials literally hundreds of phone numbers at a time. If a machine picks up, it hangs up and calls back at a later time. If a person picks up, the call is transferred to a random employee.

So 100 calls are made. 50 are answered. 30 employees are on the floor but 20 are currently on a call. Therefore, of those 50 people who answered their phones, 10 get the lucky experience of talking to a telemarketer, and the other 40 get hang-ups.

And, oh, those 40 people who were hung up on? The system will call them back at another random time to play the same exciting game of chance.

I also thank God for the no-call list. I hope they adhere to it. I've long believed these sort of telemarketing tactics should be illegal. I've had the same firm call and hang up on me dozens of times within a single evening. I just had to sit and endure it until it finally hooked me up with a salesman whom I could tell to screw off! There was nothing else I could do to stop the calls but wait, answer every one of them, and pray to be connected to someone that time. If you don't answer, it will call you back again later...