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Community Newsletter: Q&A: Are they phishing over the telephone now?!
- 4/25/08 4:05 PM
Phone phishing
by warrencassell - 4/18/08 7:08 PM In reply to: Are they phishing over the telephone now?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have two words of advice for any pre-recorded phone message you or anyone else receives: "hang up."
Cheers,
Warren
National Do not call registry
by Spastic Newman - 4/18/08 7:13 PM In reply to: Are they phishing over the telephone now?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Most of your solicitors get your info from the telemarketing sources. If you sign up for the national do not call registry then you sould slow down those calls. Another way is to switch to VOIP. I am on Vonage and I do not have my number listed so I have NEVER gotten a single telemarketer. I promise! Never! The National Donot call registry website is https://www.donotcall.gov
About every two weeks
by moorefe - 4/18/08 7:16 PM In reply to: Are they phishing over the telephone now?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I get one of those "I'm calling about your credit card. There is no problem right now, but"... and I hang up. Usually the calls come while I'm in the middle of cooking dinner or else I would try to track down WHO is responsible. Sounds like Phishing to me too.
Fred in Herndon, VA
Answer for Judie, Fraud concerns: Phishing over the phones n
by epacris - 4/18/08 7:18 PM In reply to: Are they phishing over the telephone now?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi Judie. I used to be plagued at least 6 times a day with people & machines phoning me to tell me about a free holiday or I had won a new phone etc.. The Australian government has recently introduced a Register which once your name is on it, it becomes illegal for telemarketers to phone you or they risk very large fines. Charities are exempt from the register and they can still call you. However my incoming SPAM phone calls have now been reduced to 1 every two days.
I suggest that you might contact your local Politican and see if you can get similar legislation in your country. Have a look at the Australian site https://www.donotcall.gov.au
Good luck,
Brian
Telephone Calls Not Wanted
by nomadd74 - 4/18/08 7:44 PM In reply to: Answer for Judie, Fraud concerns: Phishing over the phones n by epacrisHi epacris: Thanks for that Australian information about the register " DO NOT CALL " will certainly register.
Judie: fraud concerns
by BernieVW - 4/18/08 7:24 PM In reply to: Are they phishing over the telephone now?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Judie: Never, ever, give out any personally identifying information over the phone to someone who calls you! I'm a federal prosecutor and have worked a lot of financial crimes cases. I'll tell you - this is how criminals fish (or phish if you're a computer person) for the information they need to access the credit or bank accounts of potential victims. Once they get your credit card number, they're off to the races. They'll make as many purchases or cash withdrawals in as short a time as possible. A legitimate creditor doesn't need to ask for your account number - they already have it! The same holds for emails asking for account information - don't provide it! If you're concerned that something may be amiss with your account and you need to deal with it, get the creditor's number from your monthly statement and YOU call THEM. Don't use any number provided in a phone call or in an email. You must be aggressively cautious in giving out any personal information.
Bernie VW
JUNK -- all Phish or Vish !
by Leighow - 4/18/08 7:24 PM In reply to: Are they phishing over the telephone now?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
We all get PISHING SPAM evey day !
*************************************
As regards SPAM, The Canadian Anti-Fraud Call Center advice to us all is: " ... Don't try, don't buy and don't reply to SPAM. Just delete it...."
Your callers are "VISHING" .
****************************
The above agency's newsletter suggests this may involve; ".. VoIP phones instead of a misdirected Web link to steal (your) information..." http://www.phonebusters.com/english/legal_2006_jul11.html
Their 2007 newsletter describing a less invasive event than your's suggested .. "If you receive an e-mail that would direct you to a telephone number, don't use that number. Contact your credit card provider or whoever with a known number that's good."
Todate no one has openely Vished for my Bank info. Indeed, in my lifetime NO BANK PERSON UNKNOWN TO ME has every even called me ! However, as a Senior Citizen I am the target of three calls a week. Any ne of these might (just might)end up VISHING -- if I opted for their "Baltic Cruise" !
Following the above advice, I JUNK all unsolicited phone calls, e-mails, and surface mail.
Telephone Calls
by nomadd74 - 4/18/08 7:33 PM In reply to: Are they phishing over the telephone now?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Although my problem is not like yours I too have been receiving many telephone calls, always turning out to be salespeople wanting to sell me something. Even holidays in the Caribbean. I live in Australia, and many of these calls are from the USA. Why they bombard me I don't know.
However, because I receive so many calls I have now resorted to not answering my phone, as all my known friends will leave a message. The fraudulent calls never leave a message. Guess it's the increase of internet patrionage everywhere.
yes, they have to be fraudulent,
by ohboydom - 4/18/08 7:35 PM In reply to: Are they phishing over the telephone now?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Since I don't have a car (live in the city) and got the one about a deadline approaching to obtain an extended warranty on the vehicle I now "own", I could fairly conclude it was fraudulent. I got this one 3 times on my answering machine, with ever more urgent deadlines.
Judie, A Really Great Question! Yes, It's Worse Than Ever!
by SinbadSailor - 4/18/08 7:35 PM In reply to: Are they phishing over the telephone now?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
First, most "Sales Calls" are pushing the limit and the rest are all scams to be sure. I have a phone with Caller ID and Digital Answering and very few ever leave a message when they get the recording! I also have "Privacy Manager" as part of my phone package which won't let "Unknown Name, Unknown Number" calls (made from centrex switchboard to disguise sender)even come through. Plus for most other calls, it asks the caller to identify themselves and then tells you who it is first. Again, most of the scammers won't continue.
The credit card thing is always, always, always a scam to get info from you either to get into your accounts OR try to sell you something else OR put you into a sure-is-going-to-suck credit situation or overall loan.
The car warranty thing is easy. There are owner records the "warranty companies" can track down and try to get you to buy "THEIR" warranty which has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CAR MANUFACTURER! It's ALWAYS THROUGH AN OUTSIDE SOURCE and their service sucks, their payments for covered services sucks and their entire process sucks. THEY ARE ONLY A SALES CENTER FOR A NUMBER OF WARRANTY COMPANIES WHO DO A TERRIBLE JOB OF WARRANTY COVERAGE.
All of them just want to get your money without doing anything for you!
They call representing viable charities BUT they ARE NOT THE CHARITY! They keep 90-95% for "FEES" and send a pitance to the charity just to keep from being completely illegal. (If you wish to contribute to a charity, terrific, just do it directly to the charity you wish and keep a receipt for taxes).
NOTE: Whenever you answer the phone and it's an unknown person, simply say immediately, "Who is calling please?" and "what is your company please?" and "what are you selling please?" BY THEN THEY WILL HANG UP! Ha Ha Ha.
Oh, yes, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER tell them anything --even who you are. That's why they call it PHISHING!!!
AND watch out for the one that calls after you receive several annoying calls and tells you he's investigating the callers. RIGHT! Ha Ha. AND THEN HE TELLS YOUR HE NEEDS YOUR INFORMATION TO HELP HIM CATCH THE BAD GUYS. GUESS WHAT? HE ONE OF THE BAD GUYS TOO!
I'm 70 this week and a Sales Manager for many years selling office products for a major co. I have heard 'em all, believe me.
Oh, yes, also don't sign up for any free PCs or $500 gift cards. They'll make you try two or three products, get your credit card number and bill you to death and never stop. That one is getting really big on websites. Just keep your eyes open.
ALWAYS REMEMBER US OLD GUYS HAD A SAYING, "There is no such thing as a free lunch".
Good Luck.
Screening calls will eliminate some vishing attempts
by aomega - 4/26/08 1:25 AM In reply to: Judie, A Really Great Question! Yes, It's Worse Than Ever! by SinbadSailorI screen ALL of my calls. If it is important, the caller will leave a message. If I want to answer it immediately, I can. I started doing this because I was getting many telemarketing calls. Telemarketers will not talk to answering machines. Well, as it turns out, neither will vishers/phishers. My story follows:
When I pick up my cordless phone, it does not auto answer the call, I have to press CALL to actually answer the call. Another cordless phone I have does answer the call when I pick up, so once in a while I forget and answer using that cordless phone, and so end up talking to whoever calls. This one time it was a call from my bank (so they said), saying I was overdrawn due to some unauthorized activity (how would they know?), but I could "fix the problem" over the phone. I asked for a supervisor's name and call back phone number. She gave me a name and phone number, (this made me FEEL the call was legit) but then I complained that they had not left me a message on my answering machine. She said, "Oh, we don't leave messages on answering machines." I told her, "Well, then, that lets me off the hook. Thank you for calling, goodbye." After the call I realized that it was "fishy". I had been out of town, so there could have been a problem, but I check my bank statements every month and there had been no unauthorized activity. I checked my statements again, and everything was OK. This message thread made me fully realize that it was a phishing attempt (phishing is a better word than vishing). ---
A little technical information:
Many telemarking operations use computers to do the actual dialing. The computer has a list of numbers, or a range of numbers to call. The computer listens while the number is ringing. The computer can recognize fax lines, and some answering machines, and will just hang up. If a real person answers, the computer then routes the call to an operator. It happens pretty fast, but usually if you (the called party) listen to the line you will hear a change in the sound of the call, in the background noise, or clicks. The computer routes the call pretty quickly, but there is still an ever so slight delay. Since I have my answering machine take all my calls, the calling computer does hear the outgoing message, but apparently the computer does recognize the pre-recorded message (I did not personalize my answering message, but left the default message for answering) and hangs up pretty quickly. One more techinical detail about how the telemarketing computer works: sometimes, even if you answer, the computer will hang up, because there are no available opeators to route the call to. I got lots of these kinds of calls, and this was just one more reason to let my answering machine take all my calls.
Phone Phishing
by pattilynn - 4/18/08 7:37 PM In reply to: Are they phishing over the telephone now?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi, I have the same concerns about these type of calls. I'm not sure where to report them but fraud should be able to be reported to the Police,the telephone companys and the Credit card companies.
I'm looking into this myself as well.
I'm keeping track of the telephone #'s. One of the numbers is
000-000-0000 ... my husband called Telus (our phone directory in Canada and there is no such number listed in Canada.) It is probably computer generated so it wouldn't show up in our directory system. Any suspicious numbers, we do not answer the phone. Caller ID is a great thing to have. Lots of security issues are up to us.... the receiver of the calls.
Please let us know if you've had any luck in tracing these calls somehow. We have #57 here in Canada that traces calls. What do you have where you live? Check into it. Ask your telephone company. Those are some ideas.
Maybe the police can put a trace on some residential phones and trace the calls themselves... after all possible fraud exists with those types of calls. good luck.
finding out whom is calling
by setmeup4 - 4/25/08 10:01 PM In reply to: Phone Phishing by pattilynnPatti.... You can Google just about anything now days....I have googled phone numbers as well as the names and initials that appear on caller id.... have had great success in finding info sites about the ones I have done. 
I need your info to steal from you
by jon_2002 - 4/18/08 7:39 PM In reply to: Are they phishing over the telephone now?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Yes it is becoming more important to NOT REPEAT NOT give out you personal info to any that ask for it. They are trying to get it to steal your idenity for their use.
Yes they are doing it more and more these days.
Don't give them your SS number, credit card numbers or any personal info or it will be used to take all that they can get.
If they ask for any of your card numbers they have nothing on you soooo don't give them a chance. Just keep hanging up.
Telemarketing mostly
by Rocker452 - 4/18/08 7:42 PM In reply to: Are they phishing over the telephone now?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi Judie,
I get these types of calls myself alot. Most of the ones about credit cards are usually offers to lower interest rates on them but since I don't have any I just hang up on them.
The ones about the cars are usually sales pitches for extended warranties. Again I just hang up on them. I also get these in the mail too.
Whether or not they are phishing scams I can't say but it wouldn't surprise me if some where. The ones for the credit cards especially are suspect to me since I don't have any.
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