Is There Any Way to Make This Stop?

I keep getting calls from various numbers claiming to be the Social Security Administration saying that legal action will be taken against me, including threatening possible arrest, if I don't call them back.

It's pretty clear this is a scam because the numbers lead nowhere and the messages sound like automated bots.

Has anyone else encountered this?

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https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/#crnt&panel1-1

Haven't encountered it myself, but I am aware that there are countless scams out there.
We are living in a predator nation.

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lotlizard's picture

@gjohnsit  
That period where everyone has to discover, through painful and costly personal experience, that the new system’s legal setup favors and fosters the free-market carnival barker and scam artist from far away — not you, the ordinary local citizen.

a predator nation

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saying they detected a virus and to just give them my credit card info and complete access to my computer. (maroons) We started monitoring calls. If they don't leave a message we figure it's a scam like yours. We get a dozen hang ups a day. SS always uses hard print and mail and then we call them.

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snoopydawg's picture

it came after the ones from the IRS stopped. States are apparantly trying to address this, but some of the problems is that the scammers are spoofing local telephone numbers from people in your area or even from your friend's number so it's hard to catch them.

I have stopped answering my landline and just let it go to voice mail. If someone wants to talk to me they can leave a message or call my cell phone which I have a special ringtone for my contact list.

Don't respond because as the IRS and SSA state that if they need to get a hold of you they will send you a letter. And if they are going to call you they will give a date and time for it.

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@snoopydawg if friends or family call, will call cell phone. also when some application asks for phone number, only give out land line.

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magiamma's picture

spam... report as said above and ignore. do not call back. if they keep calling, let it ring until it stops and do not pick up or send to messages.

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I've gotten calls from Microsoft and the IRS. Watch out for emails that look like they come from Amazon confirming an order you never placed. I think they plant a virus on your device to access your network. Maybe they are only trying to scam you out of your credit card. Just don't click on a gd thing you aren't 100% sure of.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

snoopydawg's picture

@dkmich

saying that so and so has sent me thousands of dollars. Click here for the details. I'm pretty sure that no one is going to send me close to $200,000. I figured that if I clicked it I'd either get a virus or be locked out of my computer until I paid money.

I reported it, but just like spam phone calls I think people can bounce their internet ISPs so no one wants to spend time and money on it.

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@snoopydawg
what it says (if you're using a browser like firefox that does this). The fake links always have some giveaway. Sometimes i copy and paste it, then back up the string to a main level in the url to learn something about them. But then they get all the info your browser so obligingly hands over, like name, computer, OS, IP, designated email, etc.
But never click on a link from an unsolicited email.

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The do not call list is not monitored or enforced. Waste of time. I think it leads them right to you. I just tell them to FO and hang up.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Deja's picture

But they change, and like snoopy said, even spoof numbers.

I've blocked so many godforsaken health insurance spam numbers that I filled up my block list and have to delete older ones.

I've seen reporters converse with the scammers harassing you. Hasn't happened to me yet, but it's certainly a thing. Ignore and block if possible.

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First, you cannot stop them as the calls are originating out of typically India or nearby countries. I got a call with "synthesized" voice from the "IRS" numerous times with threatening overtones. Lately they have been pretty direct about threatening to put me in jail.

But IRS is not the only scam. There are literally hundreds of people in call centers doing this and various other scams. The second most popular one involves getting a popup on your computer claiming you have a virus and call such and such a number, and then you are scammed out of several hundred dollars of support you don't need.

My buddy's sister-in-law got swindled out of $7,000 by the IRS scammers. They have scammed millions of dollars from people in English speaking countries--Canadians get similar calls. In Silicon Valley various supermarkets warned their clerks about people buying thousands of dollars of various things like iTune cards which the scammers demanded.

Here is link to IRS about some scams.
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-scams-consumer-alerts

But there are people who troll the scammers and record the trolls on youtube. Here is a rather brutal/stark one. The guy doing the voice is Arab-American.

Look up a guy named Hoax Hotel who trolls various types of scammers.

So why are they calling you? From watching a number of these videos, the scammers rely on getting ahold of various databases. The calls are not random. They profile the best victims to call for various scams. Age is one of the profiling factors. A buddy says that after he calls any Indian based customer support group, he starts getting scam calls. There are people in the legit centers who are either selling names or part of these groups.

As for the title. India in particular has a thriving scam industry that uses call center technologies. It is big business there given the tens of millions they scam. One group that was busted had 200 people occupying four floors of a building. There are individual scammers in various other places, but none of them match the Indians in technology and span of different types of scams.

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snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster

first 100 days? Obama made a lot of last minute bills just before he left office, but they wouldn't take effect for many months or even years. While people were distracted by the orange idiot just elected the GOP quietly rolled back Obama's legislation. One of them was that our internet providers couldn't sell our browsing history to 3rd party companies. Now I'm wondering if other agencies are involved with that kind of selling? Look up something on the net and in minutes you start getting robo calls about it. I think it's NCTim who wrote about this.

A buddy says that after he calls any Indian based customer support group, he starts getting scam calls. There are people in the legit centers who are either selling names or part of these groups.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

False phone calls scamming in the name of a Federal Government Agency is a Federal offense and is investigated and prosecuted by the FBI. So a quick chat with your local FBI field office would be a good idea.

As my fellow c99ers have already told you, these Federal agencies send bad news by either US Postal Mail or, at the worst, by having you served. They do not cold-call you on the phone demanding stuff. Ever.

One technique I use when I'm pretty sure I'm dealing with a bot is to give ridiculous answers to the caller's questions:

CALLER: What is your Social Security number?
ME: ABCDEFG....
CALLER: What is your mother's maiden name?
ME: Marijuana!
CALLER: Don't you want to hear the details of our wonderful offer?
ME: When, in the course of human events, .....

etc. Smile

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

@thanatokephaloides if you're not too busy and you get a person rather than a robocall, see how long you can keep the person on the line. My record is just over 15 minutes with a fake Microsoft call. "Can you explain the problem?" "But my computer isn't even on now." "How do you know what kind of computer I have?" "How do you know whether the problem is on my computer or my wife's?" Let your creativity run wild.

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WindDancer13's picture

I recognize the caller. This keeps calls from going to my voice mail which I then have to access and get a bunch of messages with nothing in them. So, I answer without speaking and put down the phone until they hang up.

I figure that I am costing callers a few cents on each call I answer. When I do not speak, most of the times the robo call just hangs up. Other times after a few seconds or so, the call will start. I have found that pressing dialpad two is often the way to be taken off lists (of course, they just sell the number to someone else).

Anyway, since I have been doing this (it has been quite awhile), the number of robo calls I have been receiving have been reduced. Scams cannot work if you don't even hear them.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

SnappleBC's picture

This is a link to the a set of audio recordings. The second one has the 3 tones you are looking for in crystal clear audio.

https://www.thisisarecording.com/disconnected.html

What you care about is just the first three tones. Record a new message on your answering machine and have it start with those 3 tones then about 2 seconds of dead air then your normal message. Those tones tell computers that your line is disconnected. That, in turn, takes the number off the computer's call list... usually.

Now screen your calls. Real humans take a moment to figure out why the phone booped at them and by then your regular message starts. Computers, on the other hand, hear the tones and bail.

We have a little gizmo that plugs into the phone (between the phone and the wall) which does the same thing. Works

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

Deja's picture

@SnappleBC
Bookmarking that one.

Thanks!

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SnappleBC's picture

@Deja

A zillion years ago there was a product called a telezapper that did this. Any time the line is picked up it plays those tones before actually turning it over to the phone. I still have mine and it still [mostly] works. It's not an absolute thing. For instance, you might need to register 2 or 3 times as disconnected before they really remove you. You might be on multiple lists. But in my experience, it does in fact work over time.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

JekyllnHyde's picture

...unless it is from a number on my contact list.

When I see another call, I always Google it and if I suspect spam, I block the number. It's a pain in the neck but it reduces such calls a bit. Number blocking Aps help, too.

In the internet age, is anything personal? Perhaps loss of privacy is the price we pay to access new technology. Such a bargain!

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A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma

Deja's picture

@JekyllnHyde
Original download was fine, but at an upgrade, it needed access to the camera and mic. I uninstalled and attempted to post a review warning people, but was never, to my knowledge, successful. I got multiple errors, or when I thought it went through, it couldn't be found.

I just use my phone's block list, but it's short. There are legit apps that don't creepily "need" access to your camera and mic, though.

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snoopydawg's picture

@Deja

I'm on a cheap tracphone phone and it doesn't come with any bells and whistles and I absolutely hate Google and android so I don't have any apps because of how they want access to everything in my phone like you said. No way they get access to my photos and why do they think they should?

I'll do what JnH does and after I find that they are spam I save them in the contacts that have the silent ringtone. This way I never hear them calling. But people shouldn't have to jump through all these hoops because of their robocalls. I did read that if the government can find a way to charge them it's going to be very high for them to continue. $10 thousand per call or $10 million. Either way.

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has lapsed because of security reasons.

I've had only one so far, but I'm relatively certain I'll get more.

Most of all, I keep getting various calls about my software.

Why does government allow this crap?

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Daenerys's picture

I just don't answer the phone at all any more unless I recognize the number. Been getting a lot of 5-second silent voicemails lately, numbers from all over the US. I got the IRS one once too. One time I even got one that was spoofing my own number! Shok That time an actual human answered; I said I knew it was a scam and she immediately hung up.
So yeah, nothing really you can do other than ignore them. I like the idea of playing the three-note disconnected sound though.

Whatever you do, just don't call the number back and chew out the unsuspecting person on the other end; that happened to me a while ago too. I got two back-to -back calls from a number I didn't recognize, so I answered the second time and an older woman answered, then handed it off to a man who accused me of calling them, which of course I hadn't. It was ok when I explained what happened, but uuuuuughhhh, fuck scammers!!

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This shit is bananas.

snoopydawg's picture

@Daenerys

And that's why they were upset you called them?

One time I even got one that was spoofing my own number!

I'm starting to get spam emails from my address. So of course it comes into my in box. I'd think my service provider would crackdown on this, but they don't seem to care either. Aargh!

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Deja's picture

@snoopydawg
Spam = unwanted advertising, sorta. Though we've come to think of anything that's unwanted, as "spam", truth be told, if you enter your email address into ANY online form, ever, you've likely given your permission to receive adverts. So, NOT spam.

Spoofing is way more maniacal! If I "spoof" you, I'm making everyone who knows your online persona THINK I'm You.

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Daenerys's picture

@snoopydawg You mean they were called with my number being spoofed repeatedly? It's possible. These scammers usually change the numbers slightly so it's one or two digits off each time, so I rarely get calls from the same number more than once. But who knows. Of course you have no way to know your number is being spoofed either, unless one of the two scenarios I mentioned happens to you.

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This shit is bananas.

And let the automatics handle it. But if I'm feeling especially annoyed, I answer, give them the idea they have a fish on the hook, then say "Oh, can you hold on a second?" and put the phone down, until the off-hook beep comes out. If they're gonna waste my time, I'll waste theirs.
Other tricks:
don't say "hello", say "speak" or something else their speech recog doesn't expect.
if there's a 1 or 2 sec pause, you know it's a bot making connections to an operator.
if the calling number is from your area code and exchange but it's not one you know, it's spam. They spoof that part of the number very often.
Occasionally I tell them I'm on the no-call list and they panic hang up.
I once took the effort to track down the company (searched on the calling number), found a state's attorney's office that was after them, then called them to tell them I was referring it to so-and-so's office. That particular company had a habit of changing storefronts in Florida and numbers.

Most of this activity should be illegal and may well be, but just imagine what kind of budget the enforcement office has these days, now that the govt's not even pretending to look after the hoi polloi any more. Especially if they have to enforce it in India.

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the point of this? One more way to prevent grass roots outreach. . . Naw. But, at least it makes sense, in a politically paranoid sort of way. Wink

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