Slashdot Mirror
US Federal Court: This Year's Scams More Aggressive and Sophisticated Than Years Past (networkworld.com)
coondoggie quotes a report from Network World: The fraud and scam war rages. This week the Federal Courts warned of swindles involving people posing as federal court officials and U.S. Marshals targeting citizens, threatening them with arrest unless they pay some fake fine for failing to show up for jury duty. "This year's scams are more aggressive and sophisticated than we've seen in years past," says Melissa Muir, Director of Administrative Services for the U.S. District Court of Western Washington in a statement. "Scammers are setting up call centers, establishing call-back protocols and using specific names and designated court hearing times." The bottom line: A federal court will never threaten an individual or demand the immediate payment -- either over the telephone or money wire service -- for fines or for not responding to a jury summons, the court stated.
You know, in my experience I am forced to assume the "legitimate" call centers are staffed by the exact same people as the spammers, and that they likely collect the "legal" information to use for the illegal stuff.
Can't prove this, but pretty much all incoming calls are bullshit these days ... unless I know the actual caller, I pretty much treat them all like they're scams. Heck, according to caller ID, apparently I've called myself on a few occasions.
Incoming calls have pretty much become worthless, but occasionally spewing profanity at someone is a nice stress relief. I'm passed the point where I'm willing to treat you like a human.
You're either fraudulent, or trying to sell me some shit I'm not interested in. Which means I place no value on your feelings.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
It's a total scam because, like federal courts, the IRS does not robocall you about payment and threaten you to pay immediately. You get a letter in the mail, just like they did in 1950's.
Reminds me of one of the true classics of our time....
"Hello this is Lenny"
crazy dynamite monkey
On my land line? Not so easily. On my cell phone I actually do have an app which blocks stuff like that.
But my Panasonic cordless phones can be set to hang up on "Unknown" and "Private Caller". That killed off many of the spam calls. If you won't identify yourself from me, I'm not interested in your call.
Now they've started sending bogus caller ID, usually something relatively close to mine. So, you can't even rely on that any more.
These days if I don't recognize the number or the caller ID, I just ignore it or pick up and hang up.
So if I do answer, I'm already assuming you're lying to me, because you probably are.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
On the other hand, state courts, esp. those who sold the rights to collect those fines to private companies, absolutely will. I think John Oliver had a section on it, but the first hit is apparently (the timelier/promoted) video of Samantha Bee.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
Yeah, I had one of these guys call me the other day. I told him to come on over and arrest me. My lawyer, who lives across the street, and I would be waiting on my front steps. The little shit just hung up. Anyone who lets some clown on the phone intimidate them deserves to lose.
Another day closer to redwood heaven
Part of the problem is the bull-headed shitty tactics by government officials in the first place. We shouldn't have to fear being locked up in jail over taking a movie back late and forgetting to pay the $5 late fee. We'd be a lot less ready to give into the scams if there was less of this shit in the first place.
Website Just Down For Me? Find out
My parents get at least 2-3 robocalls a day either about winning a flight on WestJet or being hunted by the RCMP for the CRA for backtaxes. Sometimes they'll just spoof their home phone. Pretty weird getting a phone call from yourself. One called under "Unknown Name", then called back a few minutes later with the same number under "Anonymous".
My grandma gets the calls and she usually knows better for she has alzheimers and lapses in judgement. So we're worried that one day she'll give out some personal information and then forget the second she hangs up.
She also got hit by a ransomware attack on her computer, which wasn't too bad because her laptop is just a Facebook machine. Set her up with Linux Mint and there have been no problems.
Before I cancelled my phone plan I was getting at least a robocall a week and it was getting worse.
All you need to do is tell them you're very interested, but you have to take care of something and you'll be right back. Then you put the phone on mute and leave it there for about 10 minutes and go about your business. They'll stick around as long as they can because you said you'd get back to them, and it will run up their call time, absolutely screwing their turnover rate. If they haven't hung up after 10 minutes, just pick up the phone and hang up when you get back to it.
Enough people who do that, and you'll hurt them considerably by making them waste cycles. Even relatively small inefficiencies can add up in a bulk business like that if they are repeated. You're keeping longer them from making the next call, which could be that sucker who really does pay them.
Of course, with the new recordings they are making, that changes things because they can make more calls, but an open line still is a resource that they are using from their end.
Obviously, if you get them to waste the time of humans by going through their script, it is more expensive and more worth it (and more entertaining), but then you are committing your own, much more valuable time to that, so scam baiting probably isn't actually a big issue for them. Most people don't have the time to do that.
All those fucking swear words fucking spruced up those old fucking jokes! It's 10 times more fucking funny! I fucking laughed so much I couldn't even fucking swear!