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This one is tricky.
You get a call from a robo operator stating the name of the city and saying you have a call from an inmate in prison and their name is (voice of inmate) unintelligible.-name
Press 0 to accept,or 1 to decline, or just hang up.
If you accept you could be charged long distance charges and they may try to con more personal info from you.
I almost fell for it and accepted the call , not realizing that I'm accepting reverse charges because the way the message was worded. It seem like you're just Okaying the call not agreeing to anything. Or the reverse charges.
I just reported it to my Phone provider. Smooth criminals
One Thing I can always be sure of is that things will never go as expected.
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OK, But I wouldn't allow a relative or even a stranger to have my name or number. I'm Funny that way.
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A few months ago I started getting those same phone calls. Supposedly, it was someone named 'Anthony'. I never answered the calls and let it go to voice mail. After two or three calls from 'Anthony', I would get a phone call from a third party business that sets up the phone accounts for the inmates. I never answered any of the calls. Once I received a text from someone stating that my father was trying to call me from prison. I texted back that my father wasn't in prison and that they were contacting a wrong number. I haven't had any calls since. It is irritating.
Wahine
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When I talked to Verizon they said to block the number. They also said that when you block a number that any calls they make with that number, and try to charge to you, would not go thru.
One Thing I can always be sure of is that things will never go as expected.
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I got some calls like that a few months ago and at first ignored them. Turns out a relative of mine was arrested on a DUI and was trying to reach some family.
Assume the best and ask questions.
Punaweb moderator
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Is this really a scam? Or just a wrong number?
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quote:
Originally posted by PaulW
Is this really a scam? Or just a wrong number?
I originally thought wrong number when the calls started. Then when a third party business would call after the inmate called to see if I wanted to set up a credit card account to pay for the phone calls, I wondered if it was a scam.
Wahine
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Another one making the rounds is where the caller purports to be a process server or a company that uses one. In the scam you are about to be served court papers from the county of Hawaii regarding a lawsuit that you are sure to lose. If you don't want all that stress, they can settle for a much lower amount over the phone with a credit card.
The scam is effective because the people who use it have purchased your financial information from old, uncollected debts. So they have your personal information (name, DOB, SS#, info about past accounts, etc). In my case they had information on accounts associated from me from the 1990's when I was the victim of identify theft so I recognize the scam immediately. But if you ever had an old charged off debt or ever went to collections, you can be a victim too.
The first time they ran this scam, they actually contacted my sister in another state purporting to be the process server that needed to serve me court documents. She called me in a panic. I had to reassure her it was just a scam.
They tried it again a few years later, contacting me directly, using the same information from when my identity was stolen.
It happened again just a few weeks ago. Interestingly enough, the first two times it happened about the same time I was buying a house, and the third time it was after I had researched a loan request. It could be coincidence, or it could be that researching credit is somehow triggering these scams because when a person is looking to buy a house is the LAST time they need to be bogged down in a credit lawsuit.
