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A new way to PHISH for a business sucker?

3/30/18       
Charles Member

I am sure many of you are familiar with unsolicited SCAM messages where the sender(s) are PHISHING for someone to fall into their trap.

They send emails from Nigeria promising my percentage of millions for "handling" and inheritance.

They send email "orders" for cabinets, usually some odd size with no real specifications (no color, species, drawers, doors,), then want to know if we accept Credit Cards and that they will have their own shipper pick up the cabinets.

Some emails claim to be widows with no family left behind. Their late husband told them to share the millions with someone who can invest it for them. They are looking for "a very honest and sincere individual or cooperate organization that will use the fund for work of humanity."

Some emails claim to have access to a mailing list of 40 million subscribers who are looking for what I sell.

You can be pretty certain that emails are SPAM when they do not follow the CAN-SPAM Act and do not include an "unsubscribe" method as well as a physical address at the bottom of the email.

We get phone messages saying that our $250,000 line of credit is approved. They just need a few more details to complete the paperwork. (Our business never applied for any loans.)

And there are more.

If the spam calls from the same phone number persist, I simply add them to the Block Contact list on my phone. The spam emails are usually caught by my spam blocker. (I check occasionally just to be sure a legit email didn't sent to spam by mistake.)

Here is a new one I received this morning.

===========================================================
A TEXT MESSAGE:
"Call me when you get a chance. I need a reliable contractor who is available to install new cabinets."
===========================================================

There is no identification except the originating phone number. Of course, that number may be spoofed and isn't the real number. With number-forwarding they could be anywhere.

The phone number traces back to the Las Vegas area. I am on the east coast. No, I don't think it's real. I do list the phone number on our website. But, it is not listed that we accept texts. And, no. I will not be texting or calling back.

What do you think?

3/30/18       #2: A new way to PHISH for a business s ...
Mark B Member

We deal with this all day every day. Its unbelievably annoying. It makes it hard when your in business because you have a tendency to answer all incoming calls and once you start answering these, more come.

As awful as it is we have taken to basically letting most all of the calls go to voice mail and if people want to get in touch with us they leave a message.

The telemarketers have gotten so ridiculous they will mask the incoming number as a local call, like its coming from someone in our town or another mind blower for me were calls coming from the town I was born and raised in. Making you think someone from your home town was calling you (I have lived in my current location for 20 years 900 miles from where I grew up).

The part that makes me wonder is most people just wind up blocking these numbers permanently. The telemarketers change numbers with very call they make which means millions of available phone numbers are now useless because they are permanently blocked on many phones.

I see no reason why the FTC and regulating authorities cant put a stop to this nonsense immediately. The Do Not Call Registry is a joke and has never done much since its inception.

Being in business our number is on our site, FB page, contractor licensing board site, D&B, Manta, on and on. Theres no getting away from it.

3/30/18       #3: A new way to PHISH for a business s ...
David R Sochar Member

I recently replaced my home and business phones with units that have a one touch block button. They can call once, but once that number is blocked, that is it. Yes, I know they have work arounds, but it is so satisfying to congratulate them into my special club, and hit that "block" button. These land line things are great! Probably take over the world!

If it is a live person, or even locals selling roofing, driveway sealing or something else I don't need, I inform them that this is a business line and there is a $20 charge for placing the call, and I will need a credit card number. If they stall, I remind them that they called me, I have their information right in front of me, and the charge will increase to $40 in a moment or two. Once paid, they are welcome to call back anytime.

Yep, I've gotten more than one card number. No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.

This is one place the terribly ineffective public leaders we have could shine by eliminating these nuisance and predatory calls. Instead, they listen (Cha-ching!) to the landline lobbyists and help devise legislation that gets the corporations more mass call business, at our expense. There is even some proposed legislation that is designed to reimburse the phone companies iff they were unable to sell mass call packages!

I'll repeat: "No one ever went broke underestimating ......."

3/31/18       #4: A new way to PHISH for a business s ...
TonyF

I have recently retired, but one call that I got before then gave me pause. I have received calls that the Caller ID showed to be close to my number, being viewed by me as legitimate mistakes.

Then I got a call where the Caller ID showed that it was my number. So I answered the call with the only telephone that was legitimately linked to my number in order to answer a call from my number. No voice on the other end. Maybe I should block my own number.

It got to where I would also not answer any calls that I did not recognize, and figured that legitimate calls would leave a message. If a potential client called and did not leave a message, I concluded that I probably would not want to work for someone who can't take thirty seconds to contact me about about custom work, wondering what it would be like to actually do work for such an impatient person.

TonyF

4/1/18       #5: A new way to PHISH for a business s ...
Kevin Dunphy Member

I get about 3 calls day for Google business listing .One day I stayed on to speak to an person there selling placement service pretending to represent Google its fraud
I put my number on a Canadian do not call list helped a bit still get 3 a day there using different phone numbers each time .

4/2/18       #6: A new way to PHISH for a business s ...
macks Member

We're getting them too. One interesting side note, which is probably a coincidence... over the last 3 years, on every big commission we've gotten the initial phone call has gone to voicemail. I'm like this close to just not answering the phone anymore.


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