Community Newsletter: Q&A forum: Are they phishing over the telephone now?!

Hi,

Eveyone in this country with a phone of any kind or a computer of any kind has received these types of phishing. The crime of identity theft is growing worldwide now. No one is safe. Once the thief has your vital infomation, you will never be the same. Lifelock helps and many companies do try to help you recover but once the information is our there it is hard to recover.

My neighbor mailed her 1040 tax return to the irs using her postal route box at the end of her driveway. She also mailed out her electric bill and her water bill payments the same day. Two days later, her bank called and said that she was overdrawn and that since her savings account was empty they could not transfer any money to cover the check she had written at a local grocery store. When she went to the bank to find out what was the problem she learned the horrible truth! Someone had came into her bank with a fake ID and emptied every last dime from her accounts. They had her correct social security number, phone number, checking account number (they got that from her checks), a fake photo id and two legitimate bills from her proper address with them. Yes, they stole the mail and had instant access to every last bit of important information about her...everything! She reported it immediately to the police who informed her that NO ONE should ever use their personal postal route mailbox to mail out bills because anyone could drive by and see her put the mail in the box and then steal it. Because she had mailed her irs 1040, the police called the irs and found out that her tax return had never arrived. She called her utility companies and they confirmed that her payments had never arrived. My neighbor has lost everything and spends most of her free time trying to restore her credit. She is still dealing with these cruel people who stole everything she had. They are getting credit cards in her name, getting huge expensive items purchased in her name, and even charging medical bills to her name. Her credit is RUINED all because she thought that the postal route box in her driveway was safe! The police informed her to always mail bills and other vital information directly inside a post office and to shred or burn any papers with vital information on them...never throw them away! By using her postal route box to mail important papers, she gave the thieves exactly what they needed to destroy her. She now works with lifelock and other agencies to try to regain her identity and good credit, but that is a long and hard road to have to take because someone decided to ruin her.

I think that it is time that the government sees exactly what is happening and take ACTION! The do not call registry is a joke. I have reported over a hundred phone numbers to them and with my caller id, I am also able to give them the time the phisher called and the date. I still get hundreds of phone calls and emails from phishers. Many of them ask you to update your information or your account will be blocked...really, you cannot trust anyone anymore. Never click any link that these horrible people send to you.

My frustration is with the government. Our government expects you to take all the action to protect yourself. They sit back and give you advise on how to deal with these problems after they occur, but they do not take the initative to stop them all together! Homeland Security is a joke! Listening in on people's phone calls will let you know that little Bobby has a doctor's appointment but not tell you where the next bombing will occur. Homeland Security has computers trackers listening in on certain words that trigger a call to be recorded. All the person has to do is use code words to hide the fact that it is a threat...Hey, we need to meet and talk about my ingown toenail, could really mean that we meet in the park to beat up pigeons. It is a another joke to try to show people that the government is actually trying to safeguard you...a Joke!

You cannot tell me that the country that is home to some of the smartest computer hackers in the world cannot use these same hackers to prevent these forms of email phishing and call phishing and identity theft....sometimes it takes a thief to catch a thief.

We all need to protect ourselves because you cannot believe anything that our government tells us is the complete truth! Mail all snail mail inside a post office if you don't want the same problems that my neighbor is now dealing with. Don't answer any phone calls from strange companies and don't click any links in emails from so called companies trying to update information. Good luck everybody...we need it!!!

Don't Trust anyone of them until they can prove who they are. Without getting into too much detail, I was scammed about 3 yrs ago. I was later charged with fraud!! after getting a lawyer, and proving myself innocent, I had to claim personal bankruptcy! So my advice to anyone who gets suspicious calls OR emails, DON'T answer, hangup on them, DELETE the emails!!!! And remember, if it sounds to good to be true,
IT IS!!!!! Getting caught up in these scams can only cause you more misery than it's worth. Please, BE careful.

I never call those back. I contact my Bank or CC compant, etc directly, using the number I have for them. Or, if possible, go to one of their offices.

If you do call you Finacial Institution, try using another line. There are technologies that can keep the line, they called on, connected to thiers. It was used a lot, in the 70's and 80's.

If it is legit, your Bank, CC Comp, etc will let you know.

The do not call list works for the most part for us. But I used to get a lot of calls from the so called Non-Profit groups. Non-Profit my @$$. They would call and call and even scream into my answering machine. I attempted to trace the calls, block them etc to no avail. So one day I had an epiphany. I answered the phone and when they asked for me, I told them that I am the son and I would get my father. At that point I let them hold and hold and finally they hang up. This wastes a lot of their time. My wife and I do this repeatedly. My calls have decreased by about 80 percent. Good luck!

This is a good beginning on the way to protecting yourself against Identity Theft. We all have to become cyber smart when in todays unpredictable world. Please check out the following site to get an experts opinion on Identity Theft ibm.rogersconsumerpublishing.com/macleans/?p=8

According to Nigel Brown from IBM the biggest problem is having to restore your credit rating and reputation.

We have the only Failsafe Solution on the market today, our licensed private investigators will do the complete restoration for you.

For a low monthly fee you can Rest Assured, knowing that the experts are on your side.

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Hi Susan,
I have had numerous phone call like the ones you describe in your posting. I have been researching the net for several years now trying to find more ways to become informed about these buggers and my conclusion is that almost no unscrupulous methods of deception is and has not been perpetrated on the unsuspecting public.
I recently came across a very informative discussion on this matter put on the net by IBM and Mac Leans Magazine. Here is the link to that site if you wish to become better informed by it
http//:ibm.rogersconsumerpublishing.com/macleans/downloads/mac_identity.pc
I also have worked hard to find ways to alleviate my own concerns and after much researching I discovered that there is also ways to protect myself by becoming an Independent Associate of PrePaid Legal Care of Canada Corp. After you review the Ibm Site you may wish to check out my website at www.prepaidlegal.com/hub/georgedavidson if nothing else it provides hope against trying to restore your Identity after it happens as the Company partnered with Prepaid Legal called Kroll Fraud Solutions with over 30 years of experience will take over the daunting task of restoring your Identity for you at a ridiculously low cost, but the catch is if you are not a member before your Identity is compromised, even they can't help. I hope this will help you in your quest to remain protected.
George Davidson 204-889-9715

Phishing over the phone is just one of many way these thieves use to find our sensitive information. Here is a link from IBM and Macleans magazine that describes many other ways that these thieves are using to get our information ibm.rogersconsumerpublishing.com/macleans/?p=8

According to Nigel Brown from IBM the biggest problem is having to try to restore our credit rating and our reputations.

We have the only failsafe solution on the market today, our licensed private investigators will do the complete restoration for you.

For a low monthly fee you can Rest, Assured knowing that the experts are on your side.

Please visit my website today at www.prepaidlegal.com/hub/georgedavidson to enroll today or call me George Davidson at 204-889-9715 with further questions.

The safest way is to call the 1-800 number on the back of your credit card and talk to your credit provider. They will confirm whether the call(s) are from them or from someone trying to steal your private information.

I answered the phone one day and a lady said she I needed to sign up with them, an electric company, because my current electric company suggested that I do that. She pointed out a section on my bill that gave me a right to pick other companies. Said the federal government passed a new law.

I don't know if she was more than what she claimed to be as far as a company representative, but I made the mistake of giving her my account #. I was immediately sorry I had done this. Do you think they will be able to get my personal info from that one #? Worried now!

Donnaleo

I replied to the Phone issue earlier on .. but ... I must mention;

MY RECENT MISTAKE ?
I purchased an iPod Touch in November ... added some online internet messaging features ... paid for the later thru an online quasi-bank...

PHISHING RESPONSE
Soon after I started to receive SPAM expressing concern that my quasi-bank account might be under attack!

HAPPY ENDING
After considering WHO-IS,I pressed one of several links ib this bogus notice! Instantly, my free i-security software appeared with a THREAT . My intended URL was a known Phishing site.

CONCLUSION
More can be done by legit product and service companies -- on and offline to;
..(1)protect our identities and private information, and
..(2)take action to fight Spam, Phishing, and Vishing.
Phone phishing actions may have to be the responsibility of the free VOIP service providers.

Hi Donnaleo,
I don't think that one electric company account number will be enough for them to get your identity. You didn't give any other information did you? I would call my electric company and see if anyone has contacted them to change your service or attempted to get any further information on you.

If you did give the caller any other information, I would immediately sign up with Lifelock at lifelock.com and register with them. They will automatically notify you if someone uses your social security number to try to get any credit cards, mortage or other items such as utitilies accounts opened in your name and social security.

I know my neighbor wishes she had signed up with Lifelock before the thieves took everything she had. Since she has signed up with lifelock, they have contacted over 100 times that people were trying to use her social security number to open accounts or get credit cards...she has a block on her social security through Lifelock so the criminals didn't get what they wanted...none of the credit cards or accounts have been successfully opened. And since lifelock notifies the police in the area of the attempted theft, many of the criminals who tried to use her social security number have been caught and convicted. So, I do know that they do secure your identity as they promise. It is just a suggestion. It doesn't cost but about $10 a month and I think it is worth it if you feel your identity has been compromised.

I would also check all of the credit bureaus (Equifax and Transunion) to make sure that no credit cards have been opened in your name and address. Good luck!

This is becoming common these days. I would suggest that you register your phones with https://www.donotcall.gov/. It really works. Sometimes you one or two telemarketing calls. You need to get tough with them and let them know that if they ever call you back, you'll report them to FTC. If you are on the No Call List, the credit card companies cannot call you even if you have an account with them not unless you give them permission to do so. Remember, you cannot trust anyone with personal information especially if you did not initiate the call. If they are persistent, record the conversation and let them know that you are recording it. Show them that you don't trust them. If the callers are not legitimate, I am sure they will stop calling you if they know that you don't trust anyone.

i have received phone calls from a london number claiming to be my internet service provider, they first asked if i could verify the password on my address?????? from this i knew something wasnt right, my reply was that i did not beleive they were who they said they were and to verify who they are before i give them any details, the male voice got a bit stuttered, i asked him to verify what office he was calling from so i could check the caller id against the the number of that office.....he said that he has my account in front of him but he thinks there may be a mix up but its ok because apparntly i spoke to them a couple of days ago, i told him that i have not contacted my service provider in the last month and said goodbye, hung up and reported the incident to my internet service provider who said that the number that called me had nothing to do with them and that my account was not in any position that they would need to contact me

Dear Judie:

Let us get the terminology correct..it is NOT phishing which is a new term to describe ways of getting personal information on the web by usually using a fradulant website or fraudulant email message.

I guess you are young but the common term is scam or CON. This has nothing to do with the do-not-call-list. Because in breaking the law which is what Con Man do.....they do not follow the law. If you watch some news magazines like 20/20 or 60 minutes half of the cons are done by prison population or by people outside the US.

And YES this is COMMON, it has been done for an extremely long time, since the dawn of the telephone. Never bother with any pre-recorded message.....and never give up information on your credit card over the phone. Unless you initiated the call.

Finally excerpt for the pass year...the do-not-call list works...almost 100% of telemarkets stop calling my residence. In the past year, I started to received them again.

With mail items, I either "return to sender" or shred as junk mail.

If anyone is able to get me over the phone, I immediately say, "Which ___________________ (fill in the blank with car, bank account, etc.) ? We have several."