MTFCA Forum

I received a call from an "800 Service" a few minutes ago. A computer generated male voice said that the purpose of the call was to inform me of fraudulent activity on my Visa card. Having actually had fraudulent activity in the past I know for a fact that when my bank suspects fraudulent activity an actual person calls to verify charges.

Anyway, this voice informed me of two fraudulent charges, one for over $600 and one for over $400, both with amonts to the penny. It sounded pretty authentic. I hung up and checked my account. No fraudulent charges were there. I suppose they would have asked for my accont number to verify then naild it.

Be careful out there!!!

I like the ones that call about "your account" without saying what it is.

I'm eligible for a zero percent interest rate!!...
From an unknown number

I sometimes get emails ostensibly from Wells Fargo, for instance, with dire news about my account having been hacked. Since I do not now have, nor have never had, an account with Wells Fargo, I don't lose much sleep over them. Many domains have an "abuse" address (e.g. abuse@ups.com, abuse@fedex.com, etc.), so I switch the headers to "full" and forward the emails to them. Their full-time job to to trace spammers and shut them down. I'm more than happy to help and it only takes a moment or two.

I got one something like that also, but he mentioned the bank...it's just not one I have an account with, so I didn't bother to follow up. The other one that keeps contacting me threateningly is Go Daddy, so I don't have an account with them either nor is any part of my web site either I don't care what they claim they're going to do...it is also a scam. If you have a Go-Daddy account, make sure you don't log in using their log in key, close your email and just log in as you would normally and check with them personally or better yet call them...otherwise, you're likely to lose you account to these scoundrels.

As long as she's highly diffident I'm sure it's all on the up and up.

Today we got five calls from "Nancy" saying "this is your final call" ( about receiving a free back brace)
We did not even know that we needed a back brace.

Five final calls certainly seems final, I would think. Perhaps time to remain diffident.

I had a couple of recorded 27 second messages left on my phone that were similar to Bob's, really bad English but mine were for my tax fraud and they were gonna send "the cops" after me.
Ya, I had the credit card bit too. Ugh.

OT: I used to be very diffident until I grabbed a microphone or stepped on a stage. All hell broke loose. It showed me who I am. Dern it.
What the heck? Steve was you a English teacher? I've never saw a admission on your part. English mucked up on purpose.
IF we're NOT supposed to say "A history of the T" and are supposed to say "An history of the T"
I'm reverting to what I know. A history of the T.

supposed to say "An history of the T"

Ah, you have hit upon lone of my pet peeves. I have a form letter I send to media perpetrators of "an historic".


One of the most annoying solecisms current in broadcasting is the phrase an historic. Eradication of this pest would make me an happy guy. Perhaps I’m an hard man to please, but it is an silly affectation. I heard one broadcaster claim that an should be used before multisyllabic words which are accented on the second syllable. It may be an heretical attitude on my part, but I think this assertion was an hallucination on her part. She can tell it to an harmonica player, an humanitarian, or an hyena, but I’m not having any.

If you would like a more authoritative citation than ridicule from me, consider:

Webster’s New World Dictionary, Elementary Edition
An is used before all words beginning with a vowel sound. A is used before a consonant sound.

The Secretary’s Desk Book
[An is] used before words beginning with a vowel sound or a silent h, as an egg, an hour.

Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary
An now replaces a before all words beginning with a vowel sound or mute h, as, an orange, an honor.

The Little Brown Handbook, Third Edition
Use a before words beginning with consonant sounds, including those spelled with an initial pronounced h and those spelled with vowels that are sounded as consonants: a historian, a one o’clock class, a university. Use an before words that begin with vowel sounds, including those spelled with an initial silent h: an orgy, an L, an honor.

Working in the oil and gas industry is not for the faint of heart. It's filled with tough, no-nonsense people who are always under a tremendous amount of pressure. And, for me to come home and need to "detox" from the furor of it all is not uncommon.

So...when I receive a phone scammer call, I consider it free therapy....a way to take out my frustrations on someone who deserves it. I typically do some or all of the following during the attempted phone scam:

- Adopt an extreme country accent
- Have my kids run around, banging on pots and pans
- Have my kids make farm animal noises
- Yell at my kids, telling them to stop doing outrageous/unbelievable things
- Drag the conversation on and on needlessly
- Ask the person to repeat themselves endlessly
- When I finally get to where I'm giving them a "credit card number". I start and stop constantly, talk over the top of the person, go back, start over, confuse the number, give them a number that's 50 digits long, etc.

The scammer nearly always figures out what's going on and will then loose his temper and start insulting me. I also enjoy this portion of the experience. I respond calmly to all the insults and ask for more detail. For instance, if they say "F*** you", I ask to them expand on how they'd like to do that. I'm former military so I'm not easily shocked. Sometimes, they'll spend all their frustration and anger and a few times, after all is said and done, I've actually had a decent conversation with the scammer, who they are, where they are, what led them into scamming, etc.

I'm with Don, responding similarly on some of these calls to waste their time. Vehicle warrantee: How many miles, sir? Me-- 357,481 and I want the extended warrantee--Click. Computer virus issues: Me-Before you begin, I am advising you this call is being monitored to insure quality control. Him--You @##%&!*--- Click!

I think it was Andy Rooney who said that when he gets a call trying to sell him something (insurance, in many cases), he says, "That sounds interesting. Let me get a pencil and paper." Then he sets the phone down and goes back to whatever he was doing.

I posted this recently but it might bear repeating as it's an older scam that takes in a lot of folks. Got a call on my cel about 3 weeks ago. The number caught my attention as it was 000-000-0000 ! Never saw that before. Answered it out of curiosity and the punk on the line said; "Hello Grandpa Charlie"? Alarm bells as my Grandkids (6 & 3 yrs. old) don't call me that. I didn't answer back and the guy says; "Can you hear me? This is Grandpa Charlie right"? I said: "You've got the wrong # and hung up. This is the one where the "Grandkid" is in trouble and needs $ for bail or what ever. Thinking back it might have been fun to string him along and get some kind of contact info to give to the Police. Beware.

Starting yesterday, I've been getting calls (at least 10)...caller ID shows MY number !!
Before putting it on a call block, I had to see why I was calling me, (I really don't have anything to say to that guy !!), I answered and nothing, and the second time I got the "Hi this is Katherine from Microsoft" automated crap !!

All I can say is, WOW !!

"Hello Grandpa Charlie"? Alarm bells as my Grandkids (6 & 3 yrs. old) don't call me that. I didn't answer back and the guy says; "Can you hear me? This is Grandpa Charlie right"?

This is a scam where the caller will try to get you to say"YES"

Read These :
Chicago Tribune https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/ ... story.html
ABC News https://abcnews.go.com/Business/fcc-war ... d=46405703

Robo calls...
We all seem to get them, and they are the largest source of complaints to the FCC. With phone numbers often being 'spoofed', they become more difficult to block, so what are we to do? Here's a possible site reference:
https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/st ... -and-texts

Hope this helps someone.

Ya the back brace call, does no good to press what ever number they say to stop getting calls from them. I had 25 numbers in my block file from them and was still getting calls with different numbers, at 25 I ran out of space in the file.

I've "won" about 15 "free" cruises an the last year. How lucky am I?

I also get all these calls, but the strangest call is the one saying "because of some bad actions in another state my social security number has been suspended and I must call a number to correct it.

My wife and I stopped on I-75 near Picqua Ohio yesterday to use the restrooms. While I waited for my wife to reassemble the grandkids I read the warning signs. Sure enough, some clod stopped me in the parking lot to tell me about his wife with a collapsed lung. I asked him if he read any of the signs in the restroom advising me to call the highway patrol if anyone was asking for money. He ran off quickly.

Here’s a suggested method of dealing with the ‘special offers’ from telemarketers :

Thought I was doing good, but after hearing this, I need to step up my game.

https://youtu.be/-7OgWcwgB50

Don that is funny and imaginative!
Steve, thank you many times over! I've argued with people over that simple a & an bit and they are convinced they're correct!

Uhhhh? Which account are you referring to sir (or madam) ? Is this my Visa/AMEX/ Mastercard/ Shell oil/ Debit/or my Sam's club Gift card?
Really! which bank was it issued from? My computer says there are no charges to that card, If you would go to WAL-Mart and purchase a Gift Card for 1 uh $3000 and call me back with the number I promise that I will not call the police.

I have posted this link before but it is still worth a listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7OgWcwgB50

OT Well Y'all I had a call today. This is not a solicitation call but we have been tracking yo9ur account's
and you are due ZERO percent on all you credit card balances. Press 1 to talk to a repo.. So when the guy came on
I asked him "who gave you the right to track my account's----HE hung up