I understand scam calls in the general sense. Someone tries to weasel money out of your pocket. I grew up in the 70s/80s and we got a fair number of sales calls from the local home remodeling company telling us all about their window installation sale, or a travel agent asking us if we wanted a timeshare in the Bahamas. Sleazy and annoying, but for the most part they were a legit businesses with a legit product, just shady in how they sold it.
I also get it these days. It's pretty much the same thing, but instead of a business, it's scammers trying to get you to send gift cards to them so the police don't arrest you for not paying your taxes, or trying to get you to give up a credit card for a non-existent vehicle extended warranty.
But I'm curious about two things: 1) what is the structure of these things? How does the scam work? Is it just as simple as trying to get your credit card info, or is there more at play? 2) why do they continue long after the cat's out of the bag? I would think that by now the vehicle extended warranty gag is so busted that it can't be profitable. I have mine set to automatically reject suspected spam calls, and I sometimes get 10-15 a day. Today I noticed it because I only got 3. I mean, the cat is out of the bag on the vehicle warranty thing, but something about it is still profitable for the callers. What is it they get?
Is it logging who answers for information sales? Is it demographics? Are they just continuing to squeeze a dry teat?
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
A few months ago a customer let me into his home while he was on the phone. I waited for him to get off the call but then heard him say "So I need to go to Walgreens and get a gift card? What was the warrant number again?" I immediately told him to get off the phone and explained that he was being scammed. After we talked he admitted that he had paid a company to "fix" his computer over the phone a few months before. This was a dude in his late 20s or early 30s. Unfortunately there's people out there that will fall for it.
They might actually be trying to sell an extended warranty, which in itself is a huge scam.
In reply to gearheadmb :
It's possible, but after a year or more of calling me an average of 5-6 times a day and not connecting, I'm wondering how it's profitable. Granted, most of the calls are a computer, but they would have to pay someone in case I press 2 to talk to an agent.
About once a day I get an actual human who leaves a detailed voicemail. That's money. I just find it hard to believe that it's profitable.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
The actual humans don't cost money. They're paid on commission only. Software based VOIP phones run off the employee's paid for internet.
I don't think we're in danger of running out of gullible people.
I could cite examples, but not appropriate for the forum.
Stampie said:
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
The actual humans don't cost money. They're paid on commission only. Software based VOIP phones run off the employee's paid for internet.
So what you're saying is that it's not just a scam for the "customer", it's also a scam for the salesman.
I've gotten some lately that get booted to spam but then end up leaving a voicemail. It always starts like they're speaking but have been interupted...then they say they're in the area and want to buy houses but need me to call back for something that I always delete before I've ever listened to the whole pitch. Somehow it's always a number from the same area code and first 3 digits as my number.
Rule number one is do not talk to them! Some are now trying to record your voice to use it in a voice recognition system. The word "yes" is especially valuable to them. If they can plug your "yes" into something else they have which has your credit card number they can run up charges against the number. That might be a number they obtained through one of the many breaches where 100k numbers were stolen.
In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :
Yep. I run into a good amount of low income people that have been promised a work from home job that seems too good to be true.
I presume the scam is the obvious one, that they're selling extended warranties. Ones with a ton of restrictions so they never pay out.
Although apparently even they have limits. On the day before new caller ID spoofing rules went into practice, I received six of those calls in one day, and got so sick of it I decided to ask one of them to draw up a quote for this. My '66 Dart. 200,000 miles. Currently rebuilding the engine. With a turbo. Quoting a warranty for that was a bridge too far.
I haven't heard from them after that day. Are they still making those calls? If so, I have been thinking of putting together the Extended Warranty Telemarketer Challenge: Record yourself getting a quote for the worst hooptie possible and post it on Youtube. How low will they go? Will they warranty a 2006 Toyota Tacoma in Michigan that missed the frame recall? A WRX that developed a worrying rattle after the last HPDE? A Maseratti Biturbo?
MadScientistMatt said:
A Maseratti Biturbo?
Should be enough, or any 2000-2003 VW 
Scams take all forms... The people who prey on the elderly deserve a special place in hell. I was living with my grandparents briefly and my grandmother had Alzheimers or at least dimentia and had a real problem with sundowners syndrome, so late in the day she was not at all with it. We had two scams that should not have been scams that actively preyed on her. A charity for the blind that sent severely overpriced lightbulbs and the worst by far... the Fraternal Order of Police. That one pissed me off.
It was over the landline, so I made a point to pick up and listen to every call that came in to verify who was calling for what and they KNEW the person they were talking to was not capable, but fed and fished for the soundbyte to send COD or bill for the donation and then try to send collections for not actually paying the donation they solicited over the phone. Thankfully my grandmother would listen when I told her to hang up, I would then get as nasty as I could muster asking the LIVE PERSON scamming how the F they slept at night. FOP will never get a damn dime from me as long as I live for that and I will actively campaign for noone else supporting them. I dont hate cops, but that org isnt the cops, its a bloody money machine supporting itself off any goodwill the police can muster.
Other scammy topics, anyone else ever get lied to and drawn into a MLM presentation? Eff those guys too.
(sorry, the topic fires me up)
I miss the days it was an actual business not a pure scam. My dad had a great method back in the day, listen to the whole spiel and then turn around and try to sell the salesman his car or something. When the guy starts saying "whoah woah woah", he would say "well I was at least polite enough to listen to your spiel.
In college, my dormroom landline rang with a guy selling aluminum siding... I managed to jerk him around on the phone and waste 45minutes of his time on the phone before he got wise that I was jerking his chain.
Apexcarver said:
In college, my dormroom landline rang with a guy selling aluminum siding... I managed to jerk him around on the phone and waste 45minutes of his time on the phone before he got wise that I was jerking his chain.
We had a case when somebody at college had been calling the campus phone numbers with some sort of credit card offer - rumors went around it was a scam (oddly, it wasn't). When I got a call from them, I asked the telemarketer to please hold, hung the phone over my computer speaker, and set Winamp to play the Animaniacs Food Additives song at full blast on loop. I then walked out of the room.
When I came back 20 minutes later to pick up the phone, he was still there.
MadScientistMatt said:
I presume the scam is the obvious one, that they're selling extended warranties. Ones with a ton of restrictions so they never pay out.
Although apparently even they have limits. On the day before new caller ID spoofing rules went into practice, I received six of those calls in one day, and got so sick of it I decided to ask one of them to draw up a quote for this. My '66 Dart. 200,000 miles. Currently rebuilding the engine. With a turbo. Quoting a warranty for that was a bridge too far.
I haven't heard from them after that day. Are they still making those calls? If so, I have been thinking of putting together the Extended Warranty Telemarketer Challenge: Record yourself getting a quote for the worst hooptie possible and post it on Youtube. How low will they go? Will they warranty a 2006 Toyota Tacoma in Michigan that missed the frame recall? A WRX that developed a worrying rattle after the last HPDE? A Maseratti Biturbo?
I've already had three this morning by 10am. They come in waves. I'll get a few one week, then today I expect 12-15 given the patterns they seem to follow.
I always report and block the number, but they have millions of them.
johndej said:
I've gotten some lately that get booted to spam but then end up leaving a voicemail. It always starts like they're speaking but have been interupted...then they say they're in the area and want to buy houses but need me to call back for something that I always delete before I've ever listened to the whole pitch. Somehow it's always a number from the same area code and first 3 digits as my number.
Me too. They call from a "local" number so you assume it isn't spam. In my case, I live in PA but have a CA number so it's pretty obvious.
Apexcarver said:
Scams take all forms...
Agreed. I'm trying to understand what happens in between the genesis of the call and the score. All I know is I get as many as 40 calls per week for the same exact scam over the last year. Probably a total of more than 1000 calls for the same vehicle warranty. I also have received phone calls from random humans calling me back because they "missed a call from this number," even though I didn't call. So they're spoofing my number as well.
Even I know how to find data on phone numbers, and they likely have all of my relevant data points. They obviously know things, but they can't figure out after 1000 phone calls that I'm not falling for the scam? I find that hard to believe, which is why I think it's not about vehicle extended warranties at all.
gearheadmb said:
They might actually be trying to sell an extended warranty, which in itself is a huge scam.
I generally agree with you but I have bought two extended warranties.
One was from Ford on an E150. The warranty paid out almost $3k in repairs for front-end work and brakes. I made out like a bandit on that.
The second was from Dodge on a Dodge Caravan. They replaced an engine so I made out like a bandit on that one too.
TurnerX19 said:
Rule number one is do not talk to them! Some are now trying to record your voice to use it in a voice recognition system. The word "yes" is especially valuable to them. If they can plug your "yes" into something else they have which has your credit card number they can run up charges against the number. That might be a number they obtained through one of the many breaches where 100k numbers were stolen.
I talk to them sometimes, but I don't think the words I'm using would be very helpful to them.
Stampie said:
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
The actual humans don't cost money. They're paid on commission only. Software based VOIP phones run off the employee's paid for internet.
The internet bandwidth required to have a computer or a human make millions of calls per day costs a lot of money. The computers cost money. The infrastructure costs money. The ability to spoof phone numbers costs money. At this point, their success rate has to be next to zero, which is why I'm trying to understand how it's profitable.
I do know somewhat how spam texts work. They send a text with a link. They then record metrics of what you do with it. Do you have read receipts enabled? Did you open the text, block it, follow the link, interact with the webpage, etc. They put that information together with the metrics they already have on you and sell it to tech. Basically, they're trying to find out how gullible you are so they can sell your information to another scam, or (based on your interaction with the webpage) maybe sell your info to a political campaign, a chain of car dealers, or a timeshare company.
It's the same with those clickbait "news stories" you see at the bottom of webpages. They're BS stories about Taylor Swift or Jonny Depp, but the point of the story is not to report on Tswift, it's to collect data. How many ads will you click, how far will you read, which story did you click, etc.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
They are trying to figure out where you keep your 1 to 5 million dollars.
In reply to matthewmcl (Forum Supporter) :
Shi... I'd like to know as well.
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:
Me too. They call from a "local" number so you assume it isn't spam. In my case, I live in PA but have a CA number so it's pretty obvious.
Yup. Same with me.
I live in OH, and have a number from BFE coastal CA. The only person who'd call me from that area code is my wife. Or occasionally a random wrong-number of someone speaking Spanish.
