Hi there,
tellows would like to inform you about the latest threats of Black Friday! Christmas is coming and it is time to shop for our loved ones, however, we also have to protect ourselves from the scammers.
Below let’s have a look at the most common holiday scams: please don’t fall victim to them!
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According to First Orion, also sited by Federal Communications Commission report,almost half of the calls received in the US will be a spam in 2019. According to a caller ID and blocking company in the US, it stated that there were 26.3 billion robocalls made in 2018. All these figures point to a skyrocketed trends of spam calls and especially for robocalls, that bothering almost half of the residents in the US. We have all received spam calls more or less before, but what are these Robocalls and how do they get so popular?
What are Robocalls?
Hello tellows fellows!
Many of our users have reported that they’ve been tricked by phone scammers using different kinds of methods. Thanks to the tellows community, we can find different tricks that scammers use and we are able to avoid these frauds. Many users have been using tellows for years in order to share information about telephone numbers and protect other people from being victims of fraud. Unfortunately, not all of them have registered themselves with their tellows account when they can get various benefits by being registered members!
Football season kicked off recently and the social media has been undeniably broad. Ahh yes, the World Cup has brought more than football to the forefront than economic, politcal and of great interest – social issues. But we must tell you there is something behind the scenes lurking. Scams with ‘World Cup’ related content are said to increase right through to the end of the season.
MessageLabs Intelligence report 419 scams, including emails offering tickets to games, fake auction websites, fake accomodation providers, offers of free mobiles are all in the mix that we can expect to see to be on the rise in the next few weeks.
Image courtesy of Chrisroll FreeDigitalPhotos.net
And it comes to no surprise to us here at tellows. We have received a number of comments from people around the world stating that they have received an email claiming that they have indeed hit the al’mighty jackpot and won themselves tickets to see the game live in Brazil. It seems that this email will ask the recipient to phone back and potentially be charged premium rates or respond to their email which could in fact permit hackers access to your computer. Symantec Intelligence inform that contact such as an email is often just the beginning of an elaborate scam.
tellows commentator OwenOcrazy said on phone number 8015429344
I got something quite different. I got an email with this return SMS number attached for tickets to the World Cup Brasil. Quite different but more or less the same. Who do these fools take us for?
1. Ignore any suggestion to respond with an SMS, phone call or email. You can verify the phone number by performing a tellows search and read what our users have to say about their experience.
2. If the email itself looks a suspicious with World Cup propaganda or merchandise related offers, do not proceed to click on any attachments or images.
And thirdly,
3. our information is gathered by our users themselves. If you have come across something that seemed suspicious to you, do leave a comment. We urge members of the community to warn others of persons and their phone numbers that aim to financially and emotionally rob others.
Source: https://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/fifa-world-cup-scams-continue-circulate
Based on reports from consumers and federal agencies, the Better Business Bureau identified Obamacare as the most used scam method for 2013.
The complexity behind the newly approved Affordable Care Act brought a lot of confusion among Americans, which in turn, opened a lot of doors to scammers and fraudsters as a way to fool citizens into sharing their personal information, and stealing their money.
Scammers would:
tellows also received reports related to this matter.
Liz on the number 8554116569:
I don’t know how to place this number, but I just received a call from it and a pre-recorded message said that they were from America’s Next Generation and then they went on to talk about Obamacare. I don’t know exactly what their agenda is, but I didn’t wait to figure it out. After a minute or so I hung up because whatever they were trying to sell me (literally or metaphorically) I wasn’t going to buy!
Lois on the same number said:
Recently received a call from this number. It was a political call, although I’m not quite sure what kind of political movement or group they belong to. An automated message identified the caller as America’s Next Generarion (even though I never heard of the group nor am I aware of what I ever did to “deserve” these kind of calls). They just kept talking about Obama care.
BBB provided the following tips and advice on protecting yourself from con artists:
Source:
You received a call at 9 in the evening. It sounded official. Caller said he’s working with the power of an attorney and is affiliated with a credit bureau. He went on to saying that you are committing a crime by not paying the debt and threatened you with lawsuits and arrests.
Now he starts to harass you and calls even at work, giving complete information about you and your family!
Yes, it’s just a bluff. These scammers don’t have any power over you. You are just one of the many targets, just like our fellow tellows users below who also experienced the same thing.
But before we give you our top 3, here are some tips on how you can protect yourself against debt collection scams:
It’s one of those late night calls that you were not able to pick up. You called back early in the morning thinking that it was an emergency. Unfortunately, you heard obscene moaning and realized it’s a scam. Then your phone bill arrives, and there goes an extra $100 charge.
Due to the huge amount of complaints received, police departments across Utah are warning people not to answer and not to call back numbers from the 473 area code. Apparently, some residents in the area who just picked up the phone and did not even return the call were getting a $19.95 charge on their phone bill.
| For some the Caribbean Sea equals paradise, for others, the sole notion of the Grenadian area code 473 forebodes only waking nights and sleepless nightmares. A new phone-fiend has arisen on the small island of Grenada in the Caribbean Sea and pesters unwitting people with dozens of silent calls a day.
Our fellow tellows users complain about an increasing number of automated calls from Grenada. Usually the calls are most numerous in the morning, yet afternoon calls and bellowing phones at night were reported as well. Yet no one actually ever talked to the caller. The tellows user thereby conclude that the callers agenda is primarily aimed at tricking people into calling back. |
Danglt reported the number 4735209795:
Seems to be a ping call from grenada. Even without any fees for a service number the reaming fee will be high enough to cost you some dollars
Greetings from tellows HQ!
The seasons may change but nuisance callers are still a nuisance. Here are our picks of the week.
The first batch of crooks in our line-up are calling from 3605391729 posing as Washington State Employees Credit Union (WSECU), informing you that your card has been ‘limited’ (whatever that means). They don’t send you your whole card number via text, they just include the first four digits, which they are able to guess due to your neighbourhood, apparently. The plan then seems to be that you call back and confirm those all-important card details!
George states:
I got this text message: “WSECU NOTICE: Your CARD (first 4 digits of my debit card #) has been LlMITED. Please call 360-539-1729” ….. so I’m like, this must be genuine, they have my card details! but I spoke with WSECU and apparently they’re ripping off people by using standard debit card prefixes of certain areas. I guess you’re supposed to confirm your card details when you call them back. BE CAREFUL GUYS!!!
The next caller is not so ingenious – just infuriating. 5129553173 has been reported as harassment calls and is taking it to another level. We’ve heard of aggressive telemarketers but user kirkwork reports:
I CANNOT BELIEVE HOW MANY TIMES THESE IDIOTS HAVE CALLED ME!! It’s like 20 times in 10 minutes! I swear I’m just going to bury my cell in my backyard!
Burying your cell may seem like a viable solution but we do suggest blocking them first.
Last up are these audacious payday loan sharks on 7146023772 hoping to snap up a couple of gullible fish.
Milow says
They called me yesterday evening and told me that I´m was being sued for a 2011 Payday Loan. I can´t believe it. They have a lot of information about me (age, adress, name)
Susan N, meanwhile, was told that
APPARENTLY I could only settle this formal financial issue by purchasing a Green Dot card
Remember, with debt collectors, to wait for formal documentation. Keep calm and don’t forward any money until you are absolutely sure of their identity, particularly if they’re asking you for payment via unorthodox methods like Green Dot cards or obscure transfer companies.
That’s it for this week! Keep a sharp eye and have a super week!
Your tellows team
Dear friends of tellows,
This week, our most wanted numbers seem to be intent on asking as many questions as they can on a variety of different topics. Your holidays, your health and your satisfaction with their services are of great importance to them and if you don’t want to answer their invasive questions, they’ll just ring you back the next day and try again.
1. 3015759366 with 3 comments and 906 search requests. tellows Score: 7
2. 6073305304 with 2 comments and 856 search requests. tellows Score: 5
3. 6139072516 with 2 comments and 599 search requests. tellows Score: 7
Our first number 3015759366 from Potomac, USA, belongs to HealthStream and they seem to be making quality control calls regarding your recent visit to the doctor or stay at the hospital. They’re very keen to find out what you thought about it. How they got your number is a mystery but you can have your number removed from the calling list.
It’s like quality check or something after you’ve beent to the doctor, strange yeah but I wanted my number removed and she said she’ll take care if that. It was a bit annoying because they called each day bit I didn’t want to answer in case it was telemarketing because they call me too….
The second number 6073305304 is from Ithaca, USA, and its belongs to WB&A Market Research. As market research is of course of the greatest importance, you’ll be informed that they can call you despite you being on the DNC list. They’ll ask you to answer some questions regarding, for example, a holiday. Of course, they can’t force you to do the survey but that’s not to say they’ll give up trying.
They wanted to ask me questions about my trip which I took not too long ago using Amtrak. Apparently they were allowed to call me even with the DNC. well I answered the questions as fast as possible but still not revealing any information outside of that trip.
And in third place is 6139072516: MBNA Marketing. This company calls its customers regularly. Perhaps far too regularly. It’s difficult to maintain customer satisfaction if your customers are receiving two calls a day asking about it.
They call their customers out of courtesy, their choice of words, but even though I have a card from them doesn’t mean that I want to be called on a daily basis. this is not convincing me, they’re solicitous but simply annoying. I already told them to be removed from that list but it didn’t work. I’ll try again
That’s it for this week’s Top 3!. Keep on being careful and don’t let them take away your well-earned free time. Share your experience with other users on tellows and have a nice week!
Your tellows team
