We get plenty of spam telephone calls, from Ashley at Amazon Prime, Lisa at Home Comfort, and the always annoying Paul from Microsoft tech support. But yesterday's call was somewhat different. I answered the phone, and after a short period of silence (always the sign of a spam call), the conversation went something like this.
Voice: Hello, is this Mrs. _______?
Me: Yes.
Voice: How are you today?
Me: Good. (Get on with it, what do you want)
Voice: I'm calling from Mega Millions to let you know you have won 8.5 million dollars.
Me: Oh. (I never buy lottery tickets)
Voice: Is this the first time you're hearing about this?
Me: Yes.
Voice: Let me tell you how to claim your prize.
Me: No thanks. I have plenty of money.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I told Ron, who said the next step would have been for me to give my bank details so they could supposedly credit my account with the millions of dollars, but more likely clean out my account. He then consulted Mr Google, and it seems that Mega Millions is only in the USA, so I would never have been able to buy a ticket.
Slava Ukraini
Glory to Ukraine
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10 comments:
I'm happy that you and Ron are financially stable enough to not need the 8.5 million. It shows you handle your money well. My only suggestion is that to the question, "Is this Ms.______" you don't answer with a yes. They can record that and have you answering yes to anything. I alway just ask, "Who's calling?"
We get tons of calls from someone wanting to help us get rid of our timeshare. (We don't and have never had a time share.) I usually answer them with, "No, we love our time share and would never sell it!" That's when they hang up.
Interesting. Is it a custom in Canada to answer your phone without checking your caller ID first to find out who's calling first, to see if you want to answer it? Just kidding. I hear some people in the U.S. do this too.
I'm glad that all of us here have already won the lottery by discovering the wonders of spankings.
Hi Hermione,
Good on you! Glad you handled that so well. There are so many scams and very elaborate ones!
Hugs
Roz
PK - We've never had that kind of call, but it may be coming soon.
Sage - That's a great idea. but we don't have have caller ID display. That would make life so much easier.
Roz - We had our third call from "Ashley" last night. Ron answered, pressed whatever number you press to talk to someone, then just repeated "Hello" over and over until the guy on the other end told him to f*** off !
Hugs,
Hermione
Hermione, You handled that well. We don't have a home phone. I do get them on my mobile, but if I don't know the number I don't answer and then block the number,
Love,
Ronnie
xx
I suggest a viewing of John Oliver's recent expose on "pig butchering" (yes, 'pig butchering'. it's the term being used to cultivate an online/over-the-phone relationship that ends up in a money scam). You can see it on YouTube. There's more to it all than what you might think.
Interesting. Pig butchering.
In the area where I live, you practically are forced to get caller ID. Otherwise you end up talking to scammers all the time.
An older relative of mine lost a substantial amount of money from her bank account, due to a scammer who told her that other people had already accessed her account and that he was from the government and was going to protect her from them. Afterwards, the bank told her the money went to a bank account in China, so they had no way to get it back for her.
You may think it is a scam but once you talk with Joshua from the Auto Warranty Hotline you will be more than happy to cough up all of your personal and bank account info. He is very convincing.
That is sarcasm BTW.
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