Despite being very skeptical and alert to scams, I got scammed today. I lost over $2100. Worse yet, the crook got my driver’s license and other sensitive info.

I won’t go into all the details, but it began with a call from a (fake) “Lt. Steven Harris” of the Sheriff’s Department, wanting to know why I had missed a court appearance as a witness in a civil case. He said that because I had failed to appear, I was in contempt of court and could potentially be arrested. Of course, I explained that I had no knowledge of any court case or summons.

He claimed that a process server had delivered a summons several weeks ago, and that they had my signature as proof that it had been received. He said I would have to come down to the courthouse and they would compare my signature against the signature from the process server. He also said I would need to post some kind of bail until it was cleared up.

Anyway, there was much more nonsense involved but you can get the basic gist. So if you ever get a call like this, don’t fall for it. Just hang up. I have reported this information to the police.

Sorry to hear this Ray.

SOP is to get the guy’s information, and if an officer his badge number. Then get his call back number. Then you call the Sheriffs office from a number you find in the phone book, or a definitely official site, and ask for him.

Normally if this is a scam they will insist you finish business right there, as opposed to calling back.

Greg

Sorry to hear Ray, that’s why I like caller ID, if I don’t recognize the number it doesn’t get answered. If it’ goes to my cell phone and I don’t know the number, it can go to voicemail, so I can screen it.

THey’re out there. Got to be careful.

Lets see. I’m being sued by the IRS, a friend, so and so, needs money at the customs office, another one lost his wallet and needs airfare, my college loan is past due, but I haven’t heard that one yet.

Around here I doubt they’d call on the phone, you miss a court appearance and a constable is sent to your house to serve a bench warrant or they send a letter.

Fortunately, I have a couple friends that work at the courthouse, so that would be easy to verify.

Thanks for the heads up. I’m really sorry you got ripped off. (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cry.gif)

Over here they want payment through a gift card … you load it they drain it… all over the phone.

The radio public announcement states those agencies (court and cops) never use the phone for those notices.

Sorry about your loss.

Sorry to hear this Ray. Scumbags who are too lazy to break into a liquor store like proper criminals always get my dander up.

Another big clue to look for is a lot of these phone scammers want you to pay them with gift cards from Walmart, sears, home dept etc, or with a disposable credit card. Having somewhat of a checkered past I can assure you; bonds, fines and other forfeitures are paid in person at the station, courthouse or county clerks office. In cash or cashiers check.

Every now and then I am reminded of the value of a miss spent youth… (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

John Caughey said:

Over here they want payment through a gift card … you load it they drain it… all over the phone.

Yep, that’s how this went down, through a prepaid cash card. Which sounded suspicious to me but the way he explained it made it sound like it was for my protection.

The IRS called me the other day and said there was an un-cancellable warrant out for my arrest for not paying taxes. I hung up on him.

Sorry to hear that Ray

Red flags, calling, real honest to goodness Official agencies will never call you if its a serious legal matter, example IRS will only notify by registered mail, if they are calling that’s red flag number #1. If they refuse to give you a name and call back number, red flag #2, claim you signed for something and/or owe money, red flag number #3, if they will only take payment via a prepaid cash card or similar untraceable method that is the moment when you laugh loudly at them and tell them to go do something disgustingly obscene to a certain part of their body, then tell them you are reporting the given number (likely fake anyways) to the FBI for phone scamming.

I got a call like that once. Nice young lady.

In order to verify she was who she said she was, I asked her the color of her bra.

Long silence.

Followed that with, “You hate your job, don’t you?”

“Yeah.” Click.

I had read, somewhere on the web, of risks associated with Western Union. My son, when in my country, visiting from the Far East, needed on a couple of occasions to send money to his family. He used WU as the transfer costs were far less than UK bank charges. However, some months after he returned a letter arrived from the USA, Colorado in fact, stating that a money transfer had not been processed. We knew that to be false so I checked on the telephone number listed on the letter. It was not the true WU phone number, so there it was, two red flags’ as they say. I telephoned my son to make him aware and verify that his transfers had been received; which they had. A second, similar letter, just different dates and transaction, arrived a couple of weeks later. That was equally ignored. From memory I believe there was a third ‘red flag’ and that was there was a lack of details regarding payments or any other financial bank type details. I guess that information would have been elicited over the telephone as they did with Ray.

I used to get call from ‘Microsoft’ and someone else claiming a security status. They always said my computer was spamming or doing something which I felt was not really true. When asked which of my computers was doing this after a brief pause I was asked how many do you have? I replied if what you say is true then you should know. A longer pause and then I would tell them English is not my first language (it is ) but please speak in Dutch. That usually resulted in a hang up!(https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif) I am never rude to them, after all some poor devil is trying to do a job - which they may not like but is the only one they could get - but equally do not give them any encouragement.

I love the calls from Microsoft… I put them on speaker phone and pretend to do things to the computer. They want you to download a file, so I keep having issues like rebooting, forgetting to connect to the internet, and basically cannot follow the simplest instructions. I normally have lots of things to do, so I might be working in the garage or gardening, etc, all the while pretending to be working with the computer.

They usually give up, but sometimes I will tell them the truth that I knew they were scammers and have not been doing anything at all, and invite them to spend another hour talking.

Normally this results in some colorful language followed by a “click”.

Greg

I’m sorry to hear that Ray. It is really a lousy feeling to realize that you fell for their trick.

Last year my wife and I were traveling, we were in London walking down a very crowded sidewalk to our hotel with bags in tow. There were signs up everywhere warning about pick pockets and I was on notice but it happened in an instant. A young guy came at me and asked me if I had a light, by the time I said " no I don’t smoke" I realized another guy had come at me from an angle, I turned to see him leaving quickly and I turned back to the young guy and he was gone as well. It then dawned on me that he had been hanging on the wall waiting for a easy target to come along gripping his cigarette that was falling apart and signaling his cohort to come in for the score. They didn’t get anything because I was pretty buttoned up against the cold but the fact that they saw me as an easy target to try upset me then and still does.

I had a guy call me from the IRS one time and he said my taxes were over due and how much trouble I was in… I thanked him for letting me know about it and told him that I will check on that and I hung up.

Getting scammed stinks.

I thought it could never happen to me because I’m pretty savvy about this stuff, which makes it all the more painful. There were a couple things that helped suck me in. First of all, he called our house, talked to my wife and told her to have me call him and that it was urgent. So she called my call and gave me the message. I called the number he gave, got a recording saying “San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. All lines are busy, please leave your name and number.” Sounded pretty official, and as I was leaving my name and number the guy came on the line.

Second, he didn’t mention money right away. There was a considerable amount of discussion of “how did this happen, and let’s see what we can do to get it straightened out”, which came across pretty legit. By the time money was brought up, I had already subconsciously let my guard down and was focused on doing whatever I had to to solve the “problem”.

Third, the guy was a real pro, with the voice and demeanor of a cop. He also played my irritation at being inconvenienced to his advantage. And when I did get suspicious, he had plenty of reassurances.

On top of all that, I have a relative who was recently in some trouble with the law, so I kept thinking it might have something to do with that.

when I get a call from a fake government agency I tell them I have no money and I would like to be arrested in order to get warmth, food and a bed to sleep in.

For charities I always ask how much is overhead and what goes to the charity. Only 30 per cent goes to fire and police!! I tell them I would rather just go to the station and donate directly. so they will get 100 per cent.

Sounds like he put a lot of effort into scamming you. Makes you wonder how successful people would be if they applied themselves to honest work.

Ray - sorry this happened to you. I had fun with one a few years ago. Repeated a skit I heard someone else had done to a scammer. Got a call that my son was in jail (I don’t have a son - first red flag) and I needed to send bail money. Conversation:

Scammer - We need you to send $1,000 via WU to pay the bail bonds man

Me - how much is the total bond?

S - well, its a 10,000 bond, but the bondsman only needs 10%

Me - okay - can you hold a second (a friend was listening on the speaker with me. _ wrote a note for him to imitate a cop and that I needed to cooperate)

Friend - Sir - we need you to hang up and put your hands behind you back

S - What?

Me - can you give me a number to call you back? My wife’s dead on the floor and I have blood all over me and the cops want me to do something

S - ‘click’

Ray Dunakin said:

I thought it could never happen to me because I’m pretty savvy about this stuff, which makes it all the more painful. …

You took the words right out of my mouth. I sympathize with you, Ray. Todd mentioned how it irks him that they thought he was an easy mark. I think most of us like to think we’re savvy and street-smart. I let myself get conned into two vendor changes in my merchant account by the same guy. It all worked out with minimal damage, but the fact that this guy thought I was such an easy mark (and apparently I was, which makes it all the more painful) was as big a blow to my ego as the potential money loss. I lucked out on the money part, but it still makes me mad.

My only consolation, if you can call it that, is that these guys are good, really really good.

Pete Thornton said:

The IRS called me the other day and said there was an un-cancellable warrant out for my arrest for not paying taxes. I hung up on him.

Yep and I told them to come right on out to my place if you know where I live. Then hang up. Best one I do is I’ll answer phone with You have reached the Federal Bureau of Investigations Atlanta Field office. At present time all personnel are presentably busy please stay on the line for the next available agent. Usually I don’t get that far into my line before I hear click. Later RJD