What Happens When You Play Along with a Phone Scammer
Playing along with scammers isn’t recommended, because there’s always a slight danger that they will retaliate or harm you in some way.
However, those who have taken on the task of “scamming the scammers” have interesting stories to tell.
These stories give us a glimpse into the standard scamming script, the tactics crooks love to employ over the phone, and the typical sequence of events involved in a scam.
Once you’ve read the story below, be sure to share it with friends and family.
Those who are susceptible to fall for scams (which is anyone, really, but especially senior citizens) can benefit from knowing what to watch out for when they get a suspicious call.
(This story comes from reddit user P-T-A-C).
This anonymous Redditor had kept scammers on the line before, hoping to waste their time and keep them from scamming others. But this was the first time he/she was able to tie them up for more than an hour.
The call began as a robocall, with a recorded voice telling the Redditor to press 1. A man’s voice came on the line, introducing himself as “Chris Wilson with the Social Security Administration”.
The Redditor gave “Chris” a fake name, address and even a fake social security number that he had carefully chosen to coincide with the area code of his phone number. That way, the scammer would be less likely to catch on to the fact that the information was fake.
The scammer proceeded to give the usual “spiel”: a rental car filled with drugs and blood had been found in Texas, rented under the Redditor’s name and social security number. The DEA was going to seize the Redditor’s bank account, even though the scammer agreed that there must be some mistake or mixup.
But no worries, the scammer assured. There was a solution. All the Redditor had to do was withdraw the entire balance of his bank account, and send it to a “digital lock-box” to keep it safe from greedy government hands.
To entice the scammer to stay on the line, the Redditor assured him he had an ample nest egg of $19,000. “Chris” began to explain the steps to take out the cash: don’t hang up, don’t talk to anyone, head to the bank, withdraw the cash. He also said that a No Objection Certificate would be needed, something that the Redditor had never heard of before.
As it turns out, this certificate is something government agencies use…but in India.
After about an hour and fifteen minutes of back and forth, the Redditor decided to end the call.
He was impressed with the scammer’s ability to answer all his objections (although most of his answers were gibberish and nonsensical explanations involving government agencies).
It was obvious that the scammer was not new to his craft. However, he did say some things that probably would not dupe the average citizen, such as that the Attorney General of the US had given permission for the government to seize the victim’s cash.
The Redditor assumed that if he had stayed on the line longer, the scammer would have given instructions about where to send the cash, most likely a “cash mule” in the US. From there, the money would likely be sent to the scammers in India.
Do you know someone who could benefit from information about how scams work? Share this story with them today! Knowledge is power, especially when it comes to protecting yourself and your loved ones from scams.
For maximum protection (and to free yourself from nuisance calls for good, download Call Control, the intelligent call blocker trusted by millions of users worldwide.
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